


TF BW - 3 - Queens' Gambit

by Karra_Greenfield



Series: Transformers: Beast Wars (The Ruby Addition) [3]
Category: Transformers: Beast Wars
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Gen, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-17 08:48:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 18
Words: 56,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28846317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karra_Greenfield/pseuds/Karra_Greenfield
Summary: AU: Gambit - noun: in chess. an opening in which a player seeks to obtain some advantage by sacrificing a pawn or piece.As a new stage in the Beast Wars opens before them, Ruby struggles with herself about the upcoming losses to the Maximals. Can she allow her friends to die or will she be the biggest threat to her own mission?
Relationships: Dinobot (Transformers)/Original Female Character(s), Rhinox/ OC (Grandsparker/GrandSparknling)
Series: Transformers: Beast Wars (The Ruby Addition) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1875967





	1. Aftermath

The base was eerily silent, static the only noise around them now as the alien’s attack came to an abrupt end. Ruby stood beside Rattrap, leaning heavily on the table to do so, as they all watched the static filled image that had once been the read out of the weapon and Optimus’ journey to it. Rattrap quickly took the seat she had vacated and attempted to access the ship’s scanning systems. When button pressing failed the rodent did the only thing he knew worked, half of the time at least, and gave the computer a bit of percussive maintenance. As the system came back up online the others gathered around behind him, leaving Ruby to watch them all as she rested against the table.

“Computer, report,” Rattrap ordered.

“Alien construct destroyed,” the system answered promptly.

“Oh, later fer _dat_ hunk of junk,” the rodent fighter retorted. “Where’s Optimus?”

The computer took a moment to scan before it gave its answer to the inquiry. “Unit Optimus Primal destroyed.”

The news hit them hard, not wanting to admit the truth just yet. Airazor stood by numbly, but gave a gentle smile to Tigatron as he gently patted her shoulder. Cheetor held his head until his legs couldn’t hold him anymore and sat harshly in the chair of the station directly beside the one Rattrap was using as he attempted to try to find any sign that Optimus was actually still functional, but maybe severely injured. Even Ruby felt the overwhelming loss of the situation as struggled to stay upright at the table.

“I should have been flying that ship,” Cheetor said with a sigh.

Airazor touched the young bot’s shoulder supportively, trying to soothe him. “Optimus did what he thought was best, and saved the whole planet doing it.”

“But why didn’t he leave the ship as planned?” Tigatron asked, knowing it was the question on all of their minds.

“Good question,” Rattrap said as he let the seat move him backwards and utilized the momentum to stand, “and I know just who ta ask.” Drawing his weapon, the Maximal infiltrator aimed at the spot that Black Arachnia once stood, finding it now void of their unwelcomed visitor. “Slag! That sneaky ball o’ legs took it on the lamb!”

“I’ll hunt her down,” Tigatron promised darkly, transforming into his beast form. Just as he prepared to leap down the hallway to pursue his prey Sentinel began to sound its alert.

“Alert! Quantum surge detected vector 5 9 7.”

“Hold it, Stripes,” Rattrap ordered. “I think we’ve got a bigger problem.” Giving a quick glance at the screen he began to issue orders to the others. “We’ve gotta try ta hold this thing off. Tigatron yer on sensors; track dat wave. Cheetor get de shields back online. Airazor keep an eye on de power core. Ruby,” the Maximal in charge looked back at the injured one that was trying to stand on her own two feet, “get to de ‘R chamber.”

Ruby shook her head as powerfully as she could. “No. I can wait.”

“Dat’s an order, Missy.”

“I don’t want to take any more power from the shields than necessary,” she pleaded her case quickly.

Quickly seeing her point as valid, Rattrap turned to his own station as the ship began to shake violently. “Den hang on, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride.”

“Exterior shields at maximum!” Cheeteor yelled.

“We’ve got power fluxuations all over the board,” Airazor warned, standing at her own station, “They’ll never hold!”

“Make ‘em hold,” Rattrap called over.“Optimus didn’t blow ‘imself up so we could be scragged by space junk.”

Ruby, stumbling to keep herself upright, looked over at Tigatron’s screen as the computer gave its reading on the incoming wave. The white tiger began to give a countdown to impact, bracing himself for it.

The transwarp wave hit this ship violently, sending huge surges of power throughout its systems. The holo-projector jolted and struck Ruby, sending her flying back into the CR chamber door. Airazor’s station was the next to become shorted out, sending the other Maximal female flying backwards to the floor from the surge. The rock structure that the Axalon had become wedged into from its initial crash started to become unstable and fell onto the top of the ship right over Cheetor’s station sending the young scout flying back into the holo-table and throwing Rattrap to the floor.

Managing to open her optics against the searing pain in her body, Ruby heard Cheetor and Rattrap begin to scream in pain as a blinding white light filled her vision and jolted her with yet more pain. Her systems couldn’t take the further punishment and the flying squirrel felt herself go into stasis lock.

* * *

It took all of his strength and more to make it over to where he kept his spare parts. The move was slow going, having only one arm and half of a leg to drag himself by, but Rhinox eventually made it. Quickly just grabbing what cables he could, knocking over quite a bit in doing so, Rhinox attached them to his temporal stabilization device. Reaching into his subspace pocket he grabbed one of the Energon plates and attached the other end of the wires to it.

As he felt the device begin to stabilize slightly, the Maximal engineer reached into the tool storage area on the leg that was slowly rematerializing and began to fix the unit. With any luck it would hold, but he had no idea on how long that would be. Despite the vast amount of scrap parts he had managed to salvage Rhinox was not sure that he would be able to build a new device. Even if he did prove to be the miracle worker Optimus always claimed he was the old Maximal wasn’t sure it would be in time.

* * *

With a shout, Megatron burst through the rocks that covered the cave he had hidden inside to wait out the Vok’s attack. As before, Optimus Primal was successful in his valiant sacrifice in its demise, but this meant that his time was running short. His original plans were to take out Dinobot, since the traitor had been a huge thorn in his side since before they even stole the Autobot relic, the Golden Disk. Now that the saurian will realize that their original mission would resume that made things all the more difficult for Megatron, at least for him during the original timeline in the Beast Wars.

Climbing to the top of the mountain, the dragon took in the new scenery which included only one moon shining down on the planet. The Earth had taken heavy damage from the planet destroying ray and would take time for the vegetation to grow back in the areas that were directly hit. As he curled around the rocky point of his perch, he focused on his own thoughts as he took in the breaking dawn light.

Dinobot would not be his only target anymore, nooo. While his younger self and his sorry excuse for troops had the Maximals preoccupied with his attack, Megatron would sneak around and destroy the Maximal base and Rhinox, whom he recalled missing from the initial battle, with it. He would deal a more decisive blow to the Maximals and prevent Optimus Primal’s return from the All Spark.

Using the remaining darkness as his cover, he began his long journey to the Axalon and to wait for his moment of victory. The only time he had to stop and hide was when he heard Waspinator approach, knowing that he would be with the insect on their way to attack the Maximal base.

* * *

As he came to in the CR chamber, Rhinox could swear he heard Optimus’ echoing cry ringing in his audio receptors before they detected the whirl of the chamber door opening. “Uh, yo! Big buddy, how ya feelin’?” he heard Rattrap ask, whom apparently was the small blurry figure before him.

It took a few moments for his optic sensors to focus, but the sight before him was maybe one of the worst he could have ever imagined. Rushing past Rattrap, Rhinox took in the heavily damaged Axalon bridge. “What happened?”

“Rhinox? You ok?” the newly Transmetal rodent asked, silently questioning if the repair cycle was truly completed. Surely Rhinox remembered that the aliens were coming to confront them all, or was that memory lapse due to the shot of cyber venom.

Rhinox stared at the bot before him a little too long, shocked at the change. “Rattrap? What the-?”

It took a moment for the Maximal infiltrator to figure out that the engineer was pointing at him. “Oh!” he laughed a bit, “it’s kinda a new look.”

Giving a sweep of the bridge again, Rhinox felt his spark seize a bit in his torso. Laying on the holo-table was Ruby, still in stasis lock. She too had changed. The dark green and gold color scheme she shared with him was gone. Her beast mode covering was now mostly dark silver as her base color, her robotic accent colors burnt gold and even some dark red that matched her name. The temporal device that she had kept shielded under her torso armor was now exposed as her bestial head rested as her shoulder guards.

Gently taking her tiny hand in his own much larger one Rhinox looked around in shock. “Where’s Optimus?”

Rattrap couldn’t even look him in the optics. “Gone,” he got out tightly, “a Transwarp explosion.”

Looking back down at his grand-sparkling, Rhinox sighed. “Tell me what happened. All of it.”

As he was about to begin, Rattrap heard two sets of footsteps coming down the hall towards them. The heavy, unmistakable stomp of Dinobot gave the rodent some reassurance that he would not have to retell the story more than once. Even this once was going to be hard to get through. There was no shock in Dinobot’s reaction at seeing him, which meant that Cheetor must have given him a heads up in the change, no doubt having to explain some about his own.

Dinobot snarled a bit down at Rattrap and then looked at Rhinox. The sight of Ruby, altered like the other two, in stasis lock and resting on the table did not bode well with him. He observed silently how Rhinox was behaving around her; there was a care there that went beyond comrade. Even though part of his programming gave him a father like role with Airazor, his behavior could easily be read as a tighter family bond with the tiny Maximal. It made Dinobot wonder if Rhinox knew the truth about Ruby. Pushing the thought aside when Rhinox picked up the tiny femme and placed her in the CR chamber he had just exited, the warrior settled in as Rattrap began to update them on what exactly happened.

* * *

The sound of battle echoing through the chamber was what greeted Ruby as the repair systems brought her out of stasis lock. The CR chamber was dark inside, which gave the echoing blasts and crashes a more frightening pulse.

“Let me out!” she called out, her voice panicked. “I can’t protect you if I’m trapped in here!” When the shooting went quiet she pressed her audio receptor to the chamber door and listened as hard as she could through it. More crashing sounded, but it only fueled her urgency to escape.

Bracing herself on the bench she had sat on, Ruby began to kick at the door. Since there was only minimum power going to the repair chamber, it only took a few kicks for the locks to release and the door to slide up.

Not waiting for it to lift completely, Ruby rushed out and took in the situation as quickly as she could. Rhinox had been hit, resting face first on the floor in front of the station he had been shot into. Dinobot was currently struggling with Inferno as the Predacon attempted to rip off his head. She didn’t even think as she screamed and kicked Inferno in the face, between getting shot earlier by the insect and his attempt now to do damage was just too much for her processor to allow her the moment to.

Inferno cackled madly as he turned his head to face her. “You will burn for that, Maximal!”

Ruby tried to back away as the Predacon grabbed for her, but fell as he tightly wrapped his three finger grip around her ankle to yank her leg out from under her. With how hard she fell back and how hard he jerked her appendage around, she could have sworn the ant was trying to rip her leg off. Kicking him in the face with her free foot only sent the ant into laughing hysterics after each blow. “You’re mine now!”

Ruby had to blink at the sudden disappearance of her attacker. One nano-click he was reaching for her flaying foot, the next he was gone. Looking up she saw that Rhinox had picked the ant based fighter up by his head. “I don’t think so,” her grand-sparker retorted to his captive before he threw the Predacon down the lift.

As Rhinox was aiming his weaponry down the open lift, Dinobot had stood up and was now standing over Ruby. When she looked up at him, the towering Maximal smiled as he offered her a hand to help get her back on her feet. Returning the smile, Ruby placed her tiny hand in his own larger one and allowed him to pull her up. Suddenly she paused as she looked at her hand, her mouth open in shock as she held it up. Her usually green metal was now a burnt gold, the joints a dark ruby red.

“Thank you,” he said to her quietly, which drew her attention back to the present.

Rhinox had leapt down the lift opening to give chase after the Predacon dictator that had so brutally ended the life of their commanding officer. Dinobot, eager for a fight, quickly followed him. Ruby, not really wanting to be left alone on the ship, ran to the lift and looked down. Dinobot was still standing there, looking up at her and reached up in a silent offer to catch her if she wished to jump down. Smiling with a nod, Ruby sat on the floor with her legs dangling down the opening before she slipped down. Catching her easily, the saurian based fighter gently set her on her feet before they walked over to the others.

Ruby had to fight her smile. This was how she was use to seeing Rattrap, and although Cheetor was still due for an upgrade she didn’t think that he looked too bad how he was now. As they began to discuss this unexpected phase in the Beast Wars, she took the opportunity to look at herself in the sunlight. Her main concern over the change was the temporal device was now exposed. As she was brushing her fingers over it she heard Cheetor call her name. Looking down at scout, since he was still currently in his beast mode, she raised her optic ridges. “Yes?”

“What’s that?” he asked her gently.

As the others focused on her, Ruby had to frown as she looked back at the device. “It’s what’s keeping my spark going.”

“Oh,” the feline said quietly.

“Let’s get Tigatron and Airazor into the CR chambers,” Rhinox ordered, both to quickly aid their comrades and to draw any further questions away from the device.

* * *

The device pulsed to life as he attached the last wire from the old one onto it. Counting himself fortunate that he still remembered all the details of the device that Ruby had replace her old one, Rhinox slowly got up onto his feet.

He had dallied long enough for his repairs. The Vehicons could be tracking his whereabouts now and the best thing for him to do was to pack up and move. Not the most ideal, but if he wanted to strengthen his chances for survival it was necessary.

Packing the most vital objects with him, including Ruby’s little chess set, the rhinoceros was slowly pulling his cart away from the place that he had called home for so long in search of someplace more secure.


	2. Coming of the Fuzors : Part 1

The rush to find and gather the stasis pods that fell to Earth when the Vok began their attack on the planet had sent both sides into a frenzy. While Ruby left Rhinox, Rattrap, Cheetor, Airazor and Tigatron to it, the Transmetal flying squirrel silently followed Dinobot as he slowly trekked his way across the landscape toward the Darkside. Honestly, she wanted to go with the others and say good-bye before Tigatron and Airazor left on their scouting mission of the planet, but she felt that she had to make sure Dinobot remained unharmed.

Crouching down to hide among the rocks, Dinobot, in beast mode, was observing Megatron and Inferno leaving the Predacon base and the single moon in the night sky, Ruby, in her own beast mode, was hoping that the signature dampening device she had been working on for nearly a mega-solar cycle would be successful in keeping her hidden. The fact that Dinobot had not detected her yet bode well. Taking a moment herself to gaze up at the single beautiful glowing orb in the sky, she was caught unaware as a defense turret came online and began to shoot at Dinobot. Ruby barely had time to duck down as the saurian based fighter dove for cover very close to her. Hiding in the shadow of the rocks, she watched as the Velociraptor shielded his head from the falling debris caused by the blasts. When it was safe and he began to look around she swore he had seen her when he did a double take. Staying as still as possible she watched as he stalked closer to her. It took everything to not breathe a sigh of relief when he paused before a bubbling mud pit, transformed, waded into the muck, and began to splatter the substance onto himself. Now completely covered in mud Dinobot slowly crept out of his hiding spot.

Creeping out from her hiding spot, she watched carefully as he moved with a patience that belied his temperament as the turret swept the area. Ruby realized that she had exposed herself too much when the turret was facing her now. Staring down the twin barrels of the gun she waited for it to strike, but as it began to move again in its sweep she closed her eyes and thanked the All Spark that her signal dampening device worked.

Quick steps regressing away from her and towards the turret drew her attention back to the other Maximal. Dinobot was using the mud to cover his own signature, making his way to stand right before the weapon. The Transmetal flying squirrel had to smile as Dinobot gave a battle cry and destroyed the threat with one blow. He had solved the problem she had been contemplating for so long with such a simple solution, though she had no real desire to run around covered in mud all the time. With the threat of detection gone she watched as the saurian warrior made his way into the Darkside. Ruby sighed as she curled up a bit beside the pile of rocks she observed from, there was nothing for her to do but wait for his exit from the ship.

* * *

The Vehicon patrols had tripled since Rhinox’s last attempt to gather Energon. They began to swarm in the tunnels which made his attempt to find a new sheltering place more and more difficult. He knew that being caught was only a matter of time, but he intended to prolong it for as long as possible. Having to hide from passing patrols made his journey slower than he wished, but the lone Maximal bid his time. Rushing about rarely did any good and usually was only a waste of energy and time.

As he continued, Rhinox found himself deeper and deeper into the older parts of Cybertron. Idly noting that the area was slowly succumbing to the eons of neglect, he was unprepared as the walkway he had been traversing on gave way. With a yell of surprise, the aged rhinoceros and the cart he had been pulling behind him fell into the darkness below.

Coming to an unknown amount of time later, Rhinox groaned as he gained his quadruped feet, giving a hiss as pain shot through his right hind leg. Resting on his left hand side, Rhinox knew that he wouldn’t be able to do anything for a while. “Computer, begin repair cycle.”

“Repair cycle commencing,” the male Maximal computer voice acknowledged. As his internal systems began their work Rhinox waited, trying to glean what he could in the darkness that surrounded him.

* * *

With how fast Dinobot ran out of the Predacon base Ruby had her work cut out for her to not only try to keep up with him, but to remain undetected. She for one was glad that he was heading back to Maximal territory; not finding hiding on Predacon ground to be particularly enjoyable. Megatron, her Megatron, could be lurking anywhere in the shadowy landscape, waiting to strike out at the one who foiled his schemes the most.

A storm had begun move over them as she watched the saurian based fighter rush up the rocks that had formed a natural, but steep, staircase and she gave a deep sigh. Rushing to stay with him had been hard enough, but now he had to go mountain climbing! With a curt nod she followed as quietly as she could, leery of being so high up while lighting and thunder began to crash around her. Carefully picking her place she watched as Dinobot looked over his prize.

“To be,” he finally snarled after what seemed to be hours of pacing, “or not to be: that is the question. These disks I hold; are they are a record of what _will_ be or only of what _may_? For if the future is indeed immutably foretold; then my demise is but _moments_ from that conformation for I… _I_ could not live if not the master of my fate.”

Ruby carefully peeked out at him from around her rock; watching him pace and contemplate the Golden Disks in his hands. Her spark ached for him, for his confusion, for the hard and painful choices he would be facing.

“But … _if_ the future can be changed, as _her_ very existence here suggests, if these disks record merely one path of all the myriad ways the cosmos might conform, then their power is infinite _and yet_ still limited for they can be used but _once_ , and in that change be rendered fiction forever more.”

The storm around them seemed to feed off of or feel the same way Dinobot did at the moment, making her cower a bit as a bolt struck as he yelled up to the sky above. “I could _destroy_ them,” Dinobot held the disks above his head as if offering for the savage skies above to do so for him, “but… no, t’would be a coward’s answer. I will note the truth instead, _then_ t’will be either them… or me… that face oblivion.” Marching over to one of the lose rocks on the mountain top, Dinobot lifted it with ease with one hand and placed one of the disks under it with the other. “Until then,” he let the rock drop down.

Ruby eased behind her hiding rock as Dinobot passed by her, ducking a bit further behind it when he stopped and seemed to glance over his shoulder in her direction before simply starting down the stone steps. Counting to one hundred first, the Transmetal flying squirrel scurried out of her hiding place over to where Dinobot dropped the disk. There was nothing to keep Megatron from retrieving it and giving it back to himself here, especially if he knew where Dinobot would hide it. It was just too risky to leave where it was.

Quietly transforming, Ruby had to use both hands and quite a bit of force to even lift the rock up. With it tilted up enough to reach it, she discovered another problem. How could she get the disk out if she was putting all of her effort into lifting the rock? Trying to look around her arm and the rock, Ruby frowned a bit and rolled her optics. She really needed to think this stuff through more thoroughly first before diving into it head on. Putting all her weight on her left foot, Ruby tried to nudge the disk out from its hiding place with her right. The stupid thing was heavier than she thought it would be and took several kicks and nudging her toes under it to flip it out before the rock fell lose from her hands with a loud thud.

The disk rolled a bit on its edge before dropping to the side. Letting out a cycle of air from her systems Ruby marched over to the disk and picked it up, having to use both hands to do so, and looked it over. Thanks to working so much with humans she had learned a language or two. The writing was in English, ‘The Sounds of Earth’ inscribed in the center rings of the disk. “So how am I going to get you back to the base in a timely manner?”

Her only choice was to fly, but there was no way to hold it while doing so. It was just an idle thought that came to mind, but it was her best, and possibly only, option. Going into beast mode Ruby utilized her rodent form’s natural pockets. The way a squirrel’s cheeks expanded so that they could carry food for long distances and still utilize their paws was the perfect plan, and even Ruby herself was surprised at how easily the disk fit. Sure, she probably looked silly with her cheeks in an unmistakable disk like shape and the thing tasted absolutely awful, but there was no going back.

With a running leap, Ruby dove off of the edge of the mountain top and began to glide before parts of the top of her patagium folded up to expose little rocket motors that actually let her fly. Between the storm’s wind currents and the resistance the disk in her cheeks gave, she had quite a wild and non-too-straight flight back to the Axalon.

* * *

Megatron growled as he looked down upon the Maximal’s ship. Carefully watching whom all came and went was giving him his best estimate of exactly when he could strike. He had to laugh to himself as Cheetor had taken off from the base without even looking in his direction. Soon Rattrap and Dinobot would join the Transmetal feline in their pathetic attempt to keep his forces from destroying them. While they all played around, the tarnished dragon would strike at the very heart of the Maximals, not only taking out their base of operations, but killing Rhinox and preventing the return of Optimus Primal.

He had to growl as that traitor, Dinobot, came into view. Glaring down at him, Megatron saw exactly what he carried. The Golden Disk the aliens had left on the planet. “My, my, you have been busy Dinobot, yeess. You left for my base sooner that I had originally thought, stolen my prizes right from under me, and now return home with yours. Of course this means that I can’t destroy the Maximal base but,” the dragon gave a helpless shrug, “two out of three is acceptable in this case, yeess.”

As Dinobot entered the ship, Megatron turned to climb down from his perch and begin the walk around to the back of the ship. A fireball to the ship’s engines, the loss of power, and not only will he disrupt the undoubtedly delicate process Rhinox had done to pull Optimus Primal back from the All Spark, but he would not even risk being seen by his past self in the process.

* * *

Rattrap, for one, sorely missed Optimus. The Boss Monkey hadn’t been scrapped for two solar cycles and things already felt like they were falling apart. Rhinox had left him in charge of everything while he did a mind trip into whatever he went looking for and it seemed to the Transmetal rat that the only one that would ever listen to him was Cheetor. The kid had the enthusiasm, but for some reason it came across to Rattrap that the cat was lacking a few data cells when he got his upgrade.

Tigatron and Airazor had left to go hunting for more stasis pods, the pair better suited for the job than the rest of them wanted to admit. There was also the attraction the two seemed to have been developing since that flying island incident. _Fine, let the two lovers have their time,_ Rattrap thought to himself, a _nd speaking of ‘Lovers’, where the Pit did Dinobot and Ruby run off to?!_

The last thing he wanted to admit was that Dinobot actually won that battle, having Ruby chose the former Predacon over him, but the facts were hard to ignore. The pair had just disappeared before the rest of them even left the ship to check for downed stasis pods and only Primus knew where they were at now and what exactly they were doing.

Rattrap sighed. “Useta be de dames came ta me,” he told the practically comatose Rhinox. “I think I’m losin’ my touch.” His lamenting came to an abrupt halt when the communication station behind him crackled to life.

“ _This is Cheetor, code one emergency”_ the scout’s voice shouted of out the speaker, making Rattrap rush to the console.

“Oh sure, like things weren’t bad enough,” the rodent quipped as he dropped his head. “Well, whatta ya done now?”

“ _Ran into a Pred-nest in Delta quadrant,”_ Cheetor began to report. _“Couple of new nasties plus Megs himself. They’re on my tail!”_

Great! This was _exactly_ what Rattrap wanted to hear. _Not!_ “Oh, pussycat you really know how to jiggle my joystick…” he mumbled under his breath. “Ok! We’ll lay out the welcome mat!” After preparing the defenses, he rushed over to the only other one in the base, knowing that they would need that huge brain of Rhinox’s to save them once again from the sharp teeth of defeat. “Yo! Rhinox, sorry ta interrupt yer nap, but… uh…”

The computer interrupted what he was going to say with its dire warning. “Danger. Unit Rhinox’s core consciousness has extended beyond measurable limits. Any disturbance will result in permanent loss of spark.”

If it wouldn’t have disturbed it, Rattrap would have beaten his head into the device that Rhinox was currently strapped to. “Oh sure, now there’s some great timin’ for ya.” The lift opening up behind him drew his attention away from the engineer.

“What is happening?” Dinobot demanded, emphasizing with his right hand to draw attention away from his left as he hid the Golden Disk behind is back. “Sentinel is on alert.”

“Hey, Chopper face,” Rattrap was elated to see the former Predacon and see him alone, but cleared his throat to attempt to give a sterner tone as if asserting his authority. “Hey, where you been? Out savin’ the universe or somethin’? And where’s Ruby?”

“Possibly, yes,” Dinobot growled a bit as he stepped closer to the much smaller Maximal as he answered the first two questions. With a press of a button on his torso the saurian warrior activated the stash of weapons he kept on hand on the bridge, the compartment lowering between him and the rodent. As it was doing so he answered the last question shot at him by the smelly commander-in-charge, “Ruby was not _with_ me.” It was true, Dinobot had not directly seen her, his scanners not detected her, but he could feel her nearby as if watching him. Normally he would have been upset if any of the others were spying on him, especially Rattrap, but given the nature of her personal mission he found it slightly endearing that she would try to protect him. He would have laughed at the idea of such a tiny female protecting _him_ but doing so would no doubt give the rodent before him the wrong impression.

By Rattrap’s tone there was something serious going on and heavy weaponry would quite possibly be needed. On the other hand with Rattrap there Dinobot was not able to head directly to his quarters to hide the Golden Disk so he would utilize the storage space that Primal had given him to do so. With the weapon’s rack as a safety divider Dinobot peeked around the edge at the rodent in the room. “Now, what is the emergency?” Back behind the bizarre curtain he placed the disk high up and began to grab what weapons he thought would be necessary as Rattrap updated him.

“Oh! Well, nuthin’ much,” the rodent whined. “Let’s see! Rhinox is off chasing comets with his mind, ‘nd uh, Cheetor’s bringin’ a squad of Pred’s home ta play. Of course, if dey hit dis place, uh, Big Green here goes permanently offline.”

The thicker Rattrap laid on the trouble the bigger the guns and ammunition Dinobot grabbed. After strapping on two strips of ammunition, two blasters on his hips, and holding an impressive BFG he grabbed another blaster from his stash and let the storage compartment lift back into the ceiling. “Well then, we must take the fight to the enemy.”

Rattrap lightly caught the gun Dinobot tossed at him and chambered it into activity with a smirk before joining the much larger Maximal on the lift. As soon as it touched down the Transmetal rodent was leaping free of the platform, transforming into his beast mode before gaining his wheels and taking off, kicking up a bunch of rocks and dirt aimed right at Dinobot, aggravating the larger Maximal at the amount of disrespect the rodent still showed him. With a growl Dinobot ran on foot after Rattrap. The plan was simple; keep Megatron and his followers from getting to the Axalon until Rhinox returned from his dream walk. The one thought in the back of his processor was that he hoped Ruby was safe in whatever she was doing.

* * *

Ruby clung to the side of the Axalon as she attempted to open her window. It was really no small feat with the weighty disk still tucked into the pockets of her cheeks, making her head want to fall backwards with gravity and pull her from the metallic structure she clung to. As the window finally pushed to the side, the Transmetal squirrel pulled herself up more to just let her front half flop onto the window sill, the Golden Disk’s weight doing most of the effort for her on that part. Unfortunately her rear half still stuck out of the window and she couldn’t spit out the disk how she was.

Grunting, she kicked her hind legs up to try to grip the opening to try and push herself in, failing and flailing more than she really thought she should have. She swore she could hear laughter over her plight, but continued her struggle despite feeling absolutely mortified over the whole debacle. With one last grunt her hind claws gripped the opening and she pulled her back half up.

Overbalanced and unable to correct herself before she fell tail over head, Ruby grunted as she landed on her back. A quick scramble to her stomach she pulled the disk free from the pockets of her cheeks and shivered. The thing still tasted like mud and she wasn’t sure how many scrubs it would take to get the taste out of her mouth. A quick shift to her bi-ped mode and Ruby managed to shove the disk into one of the compartments underneath her sleeping berth. Now it was just to find out where the others were and what was happening.

Exiting her room, the strangest member of the Maximal’s crew quickly and calmly made her way to the bridge. The lift motor had just finished its cycle as she took in Rhinox laying on some odd contraption in the middle of the command center, the cables from the device that ran down the hallway beginning to emit a strange purple floating light. Ruby suddenly felt gut punched. _This_ was happening _now_?

Her grand-sparker was searching for Optimus Primal’s spark in the Matrix. This was one of the most critical times that she swore she was never going to leave his side on when she arrived all those deca-solar cycles ago. This one event that made Rhinox the most venerable. Sentinel’s alert to its area scan drew her attention to the screen. With a rush she ran over to the station and took in the image on the screen. There was that odd blip, the one that kept showing up when her Megatron got too close to the Axalon, that appeared near the rear of the ship. It didn’t surprise her that the systems detected him easier now since they had been calibrated to pick up the Transmetal shift with the Cybertronian systems, though his Transmetal-2 state still confused the computer.

She refused to let the fear that gripped her spark seize her as she ran to the back of the ship. Megatron didn’t intend to go after Dinobot today as he went to retrieve the Golden Disks from the Darkside. Why should he have? He would have known where the former Predacon would have hidden them away and could fetch them at any time. No, her enemy had the most heinous plan that would devastate the Maximals the most. While Dinobot, Rattrap, and Cheetor were busy keeping the Predacons at bay and Airazor and Tigatron were scouting the changes of the planet the Megatron from the future was going to attack the Axalon, killing Rhinox and preventing the return of Optimus Primal. A triple blow to the Maximal cause in this war and a guarantee win for the Predacons.

Even if he had gone to a point where Primal would be able to return, Ruby wasn’t sure that she would survive past his spark loss to continue to aid the others in his absence. Her grand-sparker had as much to do with the survival of the Maximals as the rest of them.

As she accessed turrets on the back of the ship to open them up and access the roof she did her best to shake off the fear. There was no what if to this battle before her. She had to succeed or they all died.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own the show. Thanks for reading!


	3. Coming of the Fuzors : Part 2

Ruby, in beast mode, scrambled onto the top of the Axalon through the tight squeeze that the turret afforded her. A quick glance around spied her a view she would never forget. From the roof of the bridge the same strange purple light that was bleeding from the cables inside the base now began to swirl and stretch into the sky above as the last remains of the storm clouds began to slowly swim away. Off in the distance she could barely make out the gathering of her comrades as they faced off against Megatron and his horde, a violent explosion marking the beginning of that battle. There wasn’t much time.

Running at full speed across the top in the direction that Sentinel had detected Megatron, Ruby had to skid to a halt before running off the edge of the ship. Megatron had crested around the bottom side of the cliff-face that ran around the rear of the Axalon, having utilized the river below. Seeing the vicious smile cross his muzzle Ruby shook in anger. Crawling onto the flat ground, the tarnished dragon prepared to let loose a massive fireball aimed directly at the engine compartment of the ship. Giving a battle cry Ruby leapt off of the ship, activating her rockets, and gave a powerful swoop aimed right at the underside of his chin.

“Yeeeehawwww!” echoed around the rocks, making the tyrant hesitate on his attack right before something powerful slammed into his jaw from below, sending his head flying backwards and the fireball into the air as he gave a shout of pain. Shaking his head clear, Megatron twisted his powerful neck to focus on the dark silver mass that turned back towards him. Quickly focusing on the incoming shape, Megatron’s eyes narrowed darkly at his foe’s upgrade.

“Foolish, Maximal,” he sneered, stomping closer to her as she landed on one of the peaks. “You cannot stop me!”

“Wanna bet?”

Megatron snapped out a fireball at close range, but Ruby black flipped out of the way as it hit the stone she was just perched on, transforming into robot mode in the process. Landing with a smirk Ruby activated her wrist weaponry and aimed at the dragon as he approached her, but her smirk died as her optics focused on her hands. Instead of her wrist mounted chain guns popping up and surrounding her closed fists, a weapon design dear to her spark, she was stunned to find two laser guns mounted on the top sides of each hand.

“What the…?” she mumbled, moving one up to look at it. This was not her weapon of choice. Out of the corner of her optic she noticed Megatron aiming at her again and dove behind a pile of rocks just before another fireball struck. “Slag!” she yelled, ducking some at the explosion next to her. “What a cheap upgrade!”

* * *

Dinobot crouched behind the cluster of rocks he, Rattrap, and Cheetor sheltered behind as they attempted to hold the Predacon forces as he changed out the ammunition clip. Cheetor and Rattrap joined him for the moment as Rattrap, the current Maximal leader, took the opportunity to look back at the base. The purple light extending from the top of the base was new, but given the experiment Rhinox had been doing it was not unexpected. What made Cheetor and Rattrap’s jaws drop was the huge ball of fire that shot diagonally from the area.

“What was that?!” Cheetor exclaimed.

“Megatron’s sent someone to attack the base,” Rattrap swore, but peeked out from around the rock to spy on the Predacons while they seemed to be speaking among themselves. Apparently Megatron was having issues with one of his new recruits, the purple tyrant leaning over the oddly formed Pred as it cowered behind a wing while the others watched. “I count six Preds,” he informed his companions, “de She-spider is missing ‘nd there hasn’t been an account of Scorponok ‘n Terrorsaur since de alien planet buster.”

Dinobot, who had been watching the skyline since the fireball appeared, zoomed his focus in on the area above the base as he saw something dark flying across the skyline. “It appears that Ruby has the attack at the base under control.”

With a quick check of the skyline, Rattrap conceded the fact that Ruby was there and that Dinobot was not trying to distract them from a possible double cross. “Good girl,” the rodent smiled, “we need ta try ta keep de rest of the Preds here and off ‘er back.” As the Predacons renewed their attacks, the three Maximals returned to their defensive positions.

* * *

Megatron was currently pondering the odd behavior of the mad scientist in his midst, the arachnid speaking out loud to himself with apparently an invisible someone answering. Had the spider’s processor finally snapped when the transwarp wave hit him? His ponderings were interrupted by one of his newest recruits.

“These Maximals are fools,” Silverbolt stated, quite confused. “We flank their position. They should retreat, but still they fight.”

“Ah, the Maximals are many things, but fools they are not.” The tyrant admitted to the noble Predacon, but as he turned to look at their targets the most loyal of his following ran up to him.

“Royalty!” Inferno interrupted, the ant based fighter pointing to the skyline behind the Maximals as fireball exploded on the rocks near the Axalon.

Megatron frowned as he spotted both the explosion and the twin purple beams of light heading towards the sky. It appeared that Rhinox was attempting something, leaving three of the Maximals to try to hold off all of his remaining Predacon forces. But who was fighting near their base? Was Tarantulas staging a take-over of the Axalon while they were fighting? That would explain why Black Arachnia was not with them, but not the lack of radio transmissions for the two to be communicating.

Never the less, there was work to be done.

“They’re trying to prevent us from reaching their base,” he exclaimed, “Waspinator, Silverbolt, take to the air and circle wide. Converge on the Maximal base, and hurry!”

The two Pred fliers transformed quickly, taking wing. The pair dive bombed over the Maximals, making the three duck behind their small cropping of rocks.

“Uh, oh,” Cheetor mumbled.

Dinobot growled, “Megatron has deduced our strategy, such as it was.”

“Yeah?” Rattrap started a bit sarcastically. “Well, we need a new one and pronto. If dose two make it to de base before we do, Rhinox is one dead battery.”

“Ruby is a capable warrior,” Dinobot snarled a bit, “but I would not want to risk her being overtaken.”

* * *

Despite them not being her weapons of choice, Ruby knew she couldn’t waste time sulking. With a shout she jumped out from behind her cover and began to fire at Megatron. He had turned his back to her, his aim focused back on the ship, and ended up taking several shots from her wrist guns, the shots alternating between the two tiny guns as they recoiled after each shot.

Megatron shouted in pain and anger as they struck and turned his head to aim at her again. Ruby stopped her assault and transformed, taking to the sky again to gain the high ground. As soon as she landed on the rocky ledge that surrounded the base she had to dive down to avoid another fireball thrown her way. Transforming back to her bi-pedal mode, the flying squirrel reached into her subspace pocket to pull out Megatron’s tail missile launcher that she had utilized before, but was taken by surprised when she pulled out a brand new weapon. It was covered in patches of metallic fur, had two handles to grip it, one on the back which held the trigger and one on the top towards the middle front, but apparently her upgrade had merged the weapon she had stolen from Megatron with her wrist design giving her a massive gatling gun hidden as her tail in beast mode.

“Sweet!” she cried, aimed it down at Megatron, and opened fire.

He was not prepared for the massive hail of bullets raining down on him, making him pull his left wing over to cover his head. With a roar of anger he prepared to shoot another fireball at her, but stopped as he spotted Cheetor flying at full speed towards the base. Aiming his head up, Megatron built up the fire in his throat, preparing to unleash it into the Axalon itself, but before he could succeed with that he grunted as he felt someone land on his head and a hot multi-barreled gun pressing against the very spot where the figure was standing.

“Swallow it, Meggsie,” Ruby told him darkly.

As Sentinel came online at Cheetor’s request, the rear guns on the back of the ship opened up and began to fire on Megatron. With a shout of frustration the dragon bucked his head back, throwing Ruby off with a powerful toss and began to scramble towards the river that ran along the base. He had to escape before the Maximal scout spotted him.

The time traveling Maximal hit the rock wall harshly, falling to the ground below along with a shower of boulders that had come loose with their battle. With a slow grunt Ruby pulled herself free and gained her feet again, stumbling a few steps at the damage she had received from the battle and the rocks that had landed on her, shouldering her new favorite weapon as she watched the dragon scramble away like a roach, shaking her head slowly at the poor sight of the retreating Predacon. “Check,” she mumbled and began to limp towards the front of the base.

She reached the front of the ship in time to see Dinobot and Rattrap pull up, the saurian warrior having ridden the Transmetal rodent from the site of their original skirmish. Waiting as they discussed amongst themselves, Ruby called for the lift to lower and leaned against one of the lift arms on the platform. Sitting on the ground, injured from the auto-defense guns, Silverbolt waited for the execution he rightfully deserved for attacking the Maximals, but was surprised when the punishment never came.

When the boys made their way over she straightened up, putting her gatling gun away in her subspace pocket as she watched Dinobot carry Silverbolt over, the trio having to wait for Sentinel to scan the noble fighter into its systems before the lift moved. Despite his armload, Dinobot tried to look over the tiny femme before him.

“Are you,” he paused to snarl, “alright?”

Ruby smiled brightly at him, despite the dents and scorch marks covering her. “A bit dinged up, but otherwise fine. You?”

Silverbolt heard and felt their sincere concern for each other, had seen it with the others as well. They were rough around the edges, especially with each other, but there was an honest friendship between them despite the stressful situation. There was also the fact that they did not destroy him when they had every right to do so. It was a war they were in and yet they showed mercy. He would speak with the Maximal leader when he gained the opportunity to do so.

Ruby paused to look at the huge bot that was lying on a strange table in the middle of the command room as Dinobot continued over to the CR chamber. Rattrap had followed them up and Silverbolt saw the rodent based fighter gently pat the female on the arm before the repair chamber door closed.

Ruby was stuck. Her pump was pulsing harshly in her torso as she stared at Rhinox, his head jerking from side to side, his hands twitching on the controls as he lay there. She found herself unable to move as Rattrap walked up to the engineer’s side to wake him up. As Dinobot walked up to her she felt him lay a hand on her shoulder.

“Should I prepare the second CR chamber for you?” the former Predacon inquired.

Her optics were still locked onto her grand-sparker as the device, with assistance from an impatient Rattrap, lifted him up, seemingly fine if not a bit dazed from his travel. At his question Ruby looked up at Dinobot, “I’m alright.”

Nodding to her, the towering Maximal walked over to the CR chamber controls and began the repairs to Silverbolt. Ruby stepped closer to Rattrap and Rhinox as they spoke.

“Where’ja go anyway?” the infiltrator asked, still hanging from the top of the machine.

“Where… all are one,” Rhinox answered, saying an old phrase that made Ruby smile.

“Oh ‘where all are…’” Rattrap caught exactly what he was saying and shot a surprised, but non-too happy look at his oldest friend. “What?!”

The base shaking from the incoming Predacon attack cut Ruby’s giggles short and drew the rest of them back to the situation at hand: the Predacon army outside of their door.

“I’ll explain later,” Rhinox promised. “Let’s just hope my trans-ion trail lasts long enough.”

The scream of incoming missiles gave way to their strike on the shields before Cheetor interrupted their conversation as a whole with his impending message. _“We’ve got a full scale Pred attack and the shields are failing.”_

“Oh great,” Rattrap whined, “We’re all gonna die.”

“It happens,” Rhionx stated bluntly, grabbing the chain gun that rested at his side and cocking it as Dinobot joined them, “but miracles happen, too. Let’s go.”

With their weapons ready, the four Maximals split themselves between the two lifts to exit the ship. Ruby stood with Rhinox who was glancing down at her with a bit of concern. Blinking up at him, she tried to smile as she shifted her hands on her huge weapon. “What’s wrong?”

He wanted to say that he didn’t want her to join the battle until she had logged a few deca-cycles in the CR chamber with how dinged up she was, but stopped short when quickly realized that it was most likely from a battle that kept him alive. Rhinox knew that she would not stay behind when the rest of them were fighting, even if he ordered her to do so. He was glad to see her victorious, but not at the toll it was costing her. Then there was her latest toy, but seeing how comfortable she looked with the daunting weapon Rhinox had to smile at his little grand-sparkling. “Not a thing, my little one. Not a thing.”

The lift stopped and the pair rushed to join the others as they set up behind another group of rocks that would give them some sort of protection. Each strike from a Predacon projectile shuttered the shields, weakening them with each strike; while one of the ‘miracles’ Rhinox was known for happened inside of the ship.

As the protective energy shattered around them the Maximals braced themselves for the fight of their lives, bringing up their readied weapons.

“It’s us and the Preds now,” Rhionx said grimly.

“You know my vote,” Cheetor replied, nudging the larger Maximal with his elbow before he began to fire on the Predacons. The others quickly followed suit, giving everything they had and more before they all slowly ran out of ammunition. Ruby looked down in disbelief as her new favorite toy painfully grinded to a halt from lack of ammo. “You’ve gotta be kiddin’ me…”

With their inability to fight back the Maximals were sitting ducks behind their rocks. As the Preds began to unleash their full attack Rhinox grabbed Ruby, pulling her to safety and covering her with his own form, one hand shielding the temporal device on her chest. The tiny Maximal femme curled up tightly to her grand-sparker, fully understanding what damage she could sustain in this attack and what exactly it could cost her. The others would survive this day, but there was no guarantee that she would as well. She still cried over the damage her family was receiving, though.

As the morning began to break over the far ridge, the Maximals took stock of their situation. Rhinox had pushed Ruby behind him, taking the brunt of the attack for her. Looking over at his little grand-sparkling he tried to smile despite the grim words he and Dinobot had spoken only moments before. As her shaking hand reached out to touch the hole that had been blown through his torso, Rhinox saw the uncertainty in her optics as she struggled against panicking, as if she had expected something else to have happened.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, looking back up into his optics. “I failed…”

* * *

Rhinox opened his eyes to the darkness as Ruby’s distant voice echoed around him, the sadness in her optics as she believed the worst of the situation. Her surprise was as genuine as his own at that moment when Optimus Primal burst through the side wall of the Axalon, saving them right before Megatron succeeded in off-lining them all. The Predacons didn’t stand a chance as a rejuvenated Primal joined the fray, fighting an enemy worn from their overnight battle. Silverbolt joined in at the right time, sending Megatron failing and falling into the ravine below.

“You didn’t fail,” the rhinoceros whispered in the dark, grunting as he pulled himself up onto his four feet, “but if I give up, then I’ve failed you.” Quietly he transformed into his robot mode and dug an Energon torch from the mess that was his cart. Activating it, Rhinox held it high to illuminate as much of his surroundings as he possibly could.

Somehow he had managed to land inside of a massive laboratory, the equipment size reminding him of working on the Autobot ship the Ark. Leaping down to the ground with a grunt the Maximal engineer made his way around to look at the ancient systems that had been dormant since most likely the time of the great exodus of the Autobots and the Decepticons from Cybertron.

Suddenly he paused in mid step as he realized that it could be a Decepticon laboratory as well. Until he knew for sure he would tread carefully so as to not set off any booby-traps. Despite whom the previous owner of the space might have been, Rhinox was determined to make the best of it as he possibly could.

After pulling himself onto the top of one of the consoles, Rhinox knelt down to brush away some of the dust and rust that had accumulated over the surface. Once the area was clean enough to view he brought the torch closer to examine the emblem. The words and symbol engraved on the console were Autobot. He had to smile as relief settled into his frame. Of all the places he could have fallen into, the countless places on the planet to hide, Rhinox found himself in Wheeljack’s laboratory.

* * *

Megatron fumed as he slowly made his way through the dark to the mountain top that he recalled Dinobot hiding the Golden Disk he had stolen from him. After all the deca-lunar cycles of planning and waiting to steal the relic in the first place it absolutely gulled him to have Dinobot, one of the main factors for him having the disk in the first place, take it right from under his nose.

In the pale light of the full moon Megatron lifted the stone he recalled Dinobot walking over to to retrieve his property. Instead of finding a gold circle reflecting the moon’s glow the dragon only found dirt. Maybe it was under another rock, but despite lifting all the rocks in the area there was no glittering prize to be found.

Slow realization hit him as he dropped the last stone he had lifted. That little Maximal witch stole the Golden Disk from Dinobot! Anger boiled up inside of him until he let it out in a fiery display as she yet again thwarted him.

“It is time for our game to end, Ruby, yeess,” Megatron vowed darkly as he slowly made his way down the mountain side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own the show. Thanks for reading!


	4. Pale Moonlight

In the middle of the night on the Darkside, Megatron, sitting alone in the gloom of his room that was lit from the moonlight and lava glow from the window behind his chair, frowned at the screen before him. All the plans he had made, the depths at which he had sunk to make it this far, he was not going to let a little setback like the theft of his Golden Disks stop him. He could recall the information he had accessed on the disk he had stolen, but there was still information on it that he needed access to in order to proceed with his agenda. The Predacon leader had locked himself in his room for several nights after the theft so that he could focus on what he needed to have completed to prevent the inevitable if he should fail. It left the rest of his crew relatively unmonitored during these hours, but fortunately the Maximals were as busy cleaning up and scouting the planet after the alien attack as he was. There were also other factors that he had to consider as well.

After some thought on the matter the Predacon tyrant knew that Tarantulas was most likely behind the failed mission of the Energon depot. No doubt the back stabbing spider had decided that it would make a satisfactory new lair and did everything he could to make sure that all the others thought it was a total loss. Megatron was rather surprised that Black Arachnia had not stayed with Tarantulas, but knowing how cruel the male spider could be Megatron didn’t doubt that she had weighed her options between the pair of them and found Tarantulas lacking. There was also the fact that she was hiding something from all of them. She had too much solo time to access Megatron’s personal data tracks, and he would bet that she covered her own tracks after the fact. It didn’t matter, no. Despite all of the spiders’ scheming it all turned to Megatron’s favor eventually. At least it always had up to this point.

The loss of Silverbolt to the Maximals, despite the decrease of his number of troops, was not a real loss to him. The noble streak running through the Fuzor would only serve to irritate Megatron further and he was better off with letting Optimus Primal deal with it. There were plenty of Predacons with personality malfunctions on his team to begin with.

It was the return of Optimus Primal that had Megatron fuming the most in the past few solar cycles. The Maximal leader was destroyed in the process of ending the alien’s attack on the planet, a noble sacrifice that Megatron made sure he endured. His parts were even still decorating space. No, this was the work of Rhinox, Megatron knew it. It was more the fact that it was simply something that the Maximal brain would do more than the fact that he was absent from the battle.

His frown deepened as Megatron thrummed his fingers over the arm of his chair. Tigatron, Airazor and Ruby were also missing from the battle. Scouting reports had informed him that the first two were off trekking the world, but Ruby was usually in most of the frays that happened between Predacons and Maximals, except for a small handful that he could recall; a small amount during possibly the most critical battles for the Maximals’ survival.

First was when he had stolen the rectifier coil from the Axalon, forcing the Maximals to stay in their beast modes. All of his troops and prey had been accounted for after the fact, save Ruby. There was proof that there had been a battle near the Axalon, several clicks from any Predacon location, and questioning his troops later confirmed the fact that Ruby had been missing from their skirmish.

Not only was she missing from the first initial battle after Primal’s destruction, but there was again another strange fire fight near the Axalon. While Inferno was his only other witness to the fact, there was no doubt to what the insane insect had seen. The only one that was known for using fire in his attacks stood next to Megatron as they observed the fire blast striking the rocky ridge around the Maximal’s ship.

“What is it that you know, Ruby?” Megatron asked as he brought up the latest image of his current interest. “Avoiding very key battles, especially when Primal needs all the hands he could utilize. You also keep yourself very contained, my dear, which I will admit spikes my curiosity. You are a wild card and I do not like wild cards in my deck, nooo.”

* * *

Megatron glared up at the half moon above him, his mind grinding over his current situation. The tarnished dragon had found yet another cave to call a shelter as he ran over his previous plans in his head. Time was running out and he swore that the Beast Wars would either end in his victory or his destruction.

Ruby taking the Golden Disk from Dinobot threw a real wrench into everything. If he only had the opportunity to return the disk to his past self then Megatron could proceed with his original plans with destroying Optimus Prime. Unfortunately, the back-up of the access codes to the Ark were now in Black Arachnia’s head. It had taken taking over Optimal Optimus to gain access the access to the Ark that gained Megatron the form he currently had. There was no action that his old self had planned that would give him an opportunity for a win, not anytime soon. He would have to wait until Dinobot gave it back to him, as it had originally happened, because surely the time-travelling little pest would not risk not having the disk back before that time came.

Perking his head up, the dragon smiled darkly in the gloom of the night as a cloud passed over the half moon above. No, it was nothing _he_ had planned that would work in his favor but the Vok’s next move would be a vital blow to the Maximals.

There were still quite a few solar cycles before those events came to pass, but he would be ready. No doubt Ruby would be as well.

* * *

In the single light from her desk lamp, Ruby examined the Golden Disk that rested on her desk. Reading once more the lettering inscribed in the center of it she had to smile, privately pleased that she had accepted the Earth Language lessons. Having already gleaned the data she would need later from the artifact, she quite enjoyed gently running her finger over the ridges that spiraled around the face of the record, listening to the greeting in all of the Earth languages at the time of its creation. Oh, if only she could tell Cirus about this.

That thought made her frown as she pulled away from her desk. She learned a lot from her dear human friend in their all too short time together, but the most important lesson he had taught her was to cherish every moment with those close to you because their time with you could not be forever. “The heart does not let you choose who it loves,” he had told her one night, “nor does it let you choose how much it loves whom.”

When Cirus passed she stood watch at his casket during the memorial on Cybertron and had accompanied his body back to Earth. His human family, by that time had been his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, had greeted her but otherwise ignored her at the funeral. When it was over she returned back home and returned to her duties, mourning his loss in silence.

Gaining her feet, Ruby hid her treasure once more before she made her way over the figurines that were sitting on a shelf above the others that rested in their places on the chess board, out of the way as they dried. The rush after the Vok’s attack left things a bit crazy so she did not have time to make Silverbolt and Quickstrike’s figurines for her chess set until now. Satisfied with how well they turned out she walked over to the window, opening it to let in the night breeze. Something didn’t feel right outside so Ruby transformed into her beast mode before leaping out of the window. Gliding into the air, she caught the wind current from the waterfall and used it to quietly gain altitude to circle around the base.

A lone figure stood at the top of one of the high peaks surrounding the base looking out towards the enemy base, its only illumination was the single half moon above. Recognizing the size and armor with her nocturnal gift from her beast mode, Ruby made sure that Dinobot saw her clearly by gliding in front of him before circling around to land nearby.

The saurian warrior’s thoughts were interrupted as the Transmetal flying squirrel passed his view, his processor having been focused on the events that had led them all to their current situation with the Beast Wars and where in history he would be remembered. Honestly, he was glad she had let him know that she was approaching, with him being lost in thought Dinobot was sure he might have hurt her before he realized that she was friend.

It was a rare sight in the past fortnight since the Vok attack, but as Ruby slowly padded herself onto a boulder next to Dinobot he actually smiled down at her. Silently transforming, she stood quietly at his side as they both looked over the landscape, silent before the pair.

“Do you think anything will grow back?” she whispered.

“Perhaps, with time,” Dinobot snarled quietly.

“Like with all other things.”

Silence surrounded them once more as the clouds blocked the light from the moon for a few moments. With how he kept looking at her, Ruby tried to figure out what exactly what was on Dinobot’s mind. Eventually the clouds moved away, bathing them both in moonlight.

Focusing down at the tiny femme before him, he had to admire how her new color scheme caught the moonlight; giving her a mysterious glow that only drew him closer. There was also her knowledge, the want to ask her so many questions that continually bounced around in his processor since the day they were stuck in the cave together. A soft snarl preceded his words, “Ruby, can we speak?”

“I thought that’s what we were doing,” she replied as she looked up at him, humor thick in her voice.

Dinobot rolled his optics with a slight shake of his head. A sarcastic reply, definitely some influence from Rattrap. “I meant about the future.” He watched the humor fade from her face as she looked back over the landscape.

“You know I can’t,” she eventually told him, sorrow softening her voice. “I want to, but doing so risks everything. Us having this discussion is a risk. You knowing is a risk.” She sighed, rubbing her upper arms.

“Is there anything at all that you could gift me with?” he asked quietly.

She heard the plea in his voice, the need to know that he was doing the right, honorable thing. Looking back up at him she fought the urge to blurt it all out. His future. His sacrifice.

“The choices are yours and yours alone, Dinobot,” she began slowly. “Others cannot make them for you.” When he looked down at the ground she continued. “But what they say and do can help you choose the right path. Follow your _honor_ , Dinobot, and I will support the path _you_ choose.”

 _My honor_ , Dinobot thought with a soft snarl, lifting his head back up. _I fight against my heritage, my Predacon heritage. Are you telling me that I will fight against the Maximals once more? Am I to fight against you?_ He looked down at her, seeing pity in her optics. No, not pity. Understanding. She understood him. She understood more than his pain at having knowledge that could save or enslave them all and not being able to share it, she understood what made him who he was and his spark felt eased with that.

Gently he lifted her chin up with his fingers, smiling at her. “What if I chose you?”

Ruby’s processor reeled. ‘ _What if I chose you?’ What did he mean by…? Ooooooh!_ “I… um…”

“Is there someone waiting for your return, Ruby?” he asked solemnly. “Someone aside from your grand-sparker?”

“Sh-should there be?” she asked quietly. _Not fair Uncle Rattrap! All your stories about Dinobot, my crush on him from those stories about how he was such a good honorable bot, and I have to let him die?!_ But she let him pull closer, her spark racing, closing her optics in anticipation of a kiss, melting at the soft purr from him.

Then her communicator went off. _“Silverbolt to Ruby.”_

She quickly stepped away from Dinobot, who only just snarled at hearing the voice, and answered, “Ruby here.”

“ _I’m sorry, my lady, but I grew concerned that you have not shown up to relieve me of monitor duty and was worried for your safety.”_

The Transmetal femme had to stifle a giggle as she heard Dinobot grumble something about it being a likely excuse under his breath. “I’ll be right there, Silverbolt. Ruby out.” Then she passed a bashful smile up at Dinobot, “I… better go.”

“Why not ask Rattrap to cover it?” he snarled playfully, recalling the work debt she plunged he and the other rodent into as they both transformed into their beast modes to make their way back to the ship.

“Because he’s relieving me in the morning,” she replied, smiling at the fact that he was walking at her speed, “and I don’t want him falling asleep during it again. Optimus is already upset at him over the last time.”

“How kind of you,” Dinobot retorted.

“What can I say?” she giggled, “It’s my job to take care of all of y’all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own the show. Thanks for reading!


	5. Maximal, No More

Ruby sat at the bridge’s scanning station, her screen showing the latest data sent in from Tigatron and Airazor. She enjoyed the small amount of time they had to speak before the transfer completed and the pair had to move on, but she missed her friends dearly and fought with herself about warning them of what was to come. At the command table behind her, Rhinox and Optimus had been discussing the most recent additions Megatron had been adding to his territory, mostly the jamming stations, in an odd pattern.

“Jamming towers and Energon mining stations,” Rhinox informed his friend from the recent scouting mission Cheetor had currently relaying information from. “All looking as if they’re randomly placed around his ship.”

“Nothing is random with Megatron,” Primal stated, giving a thoughtful noise in his throat as he rubbed his chin. It was marching over to the station next to her that gained Ruby’s full attention. While Primal brought up a communication between him and Dinobot, the Transmetal femme calmly looked on. “Dinobot, report to the command center immediately. I need you to lead a mission into Predacon ground.”

As Primal called to others he wanted for the mission Rhinox watched as Ruby’s hands twitched a bit, her shoulders squaring some. It was subtle and he apparently was the only one that caught it, but looking back he had seen her react like that before when it was something familiar to her. He needed to come up with some plausible excuse for her to act without recourse.

Rattrap was the first onto the bridge, followed quickly by Silverbolt, with Dinobot not too far behind. Ruby had turned in her station to listen in on the conversation and smiled a bit when Silverbolt greeted her quite warmly in his usual polite manner. The glare he unknowingly received from both Dinobot and Rattrap almost made her laugh out loud. If they only knew where this white knight’s spark truly belonged to they would never have worried over the fact.

“Dinobot, you’re in command of the mission. Take Rattrap, Ruby, and Silverbolt and do a full search of the area surrounding the Darkside. Megatron is up to something and I need to know exactly what that is.”

 _Uh oh,_ Ruby thought to herself, _I’ve got to get the disk back, but I can’t if I’m out in the field._

Rhinox calmly interrupted Primal for a moment, having noticed a slight surge of panic in Ruby’s optics. “Actually, Ruby has yet to scout Grid Omega for me today.” Grid Omega was the first place the alien destruction beam had struck and had become a scorched stain on the earth.

“That’s a slag assignment, Rhinox,” Rattrap interjected. “At least let her come with us. It’d make the trip less boring with someone with a brighter disposition than Dinobutt.”

Dinobot snarled a bit, ignoring the blatant jab even though Rattrap’s thumb had tapped him in the torso plate, and Silverbolt just looked between the two. It confused him as to why Rattrap still treated Dinobot so harshly and seemed kind to him when they were both Predacons turned Maximals. Silverbolt believed that the rodent should have trusted Dinobot more than himself since Dinobot had worked with the Maximals since the beginning of the Beast Wars.

Ruby’s shoulders shrank down a bit as she thought. She had been scanning Grid Omega since the day after Primal’s return and there had not been much of a change in its landscape, but to continue to do so was of her own reasoning. It was an ideal location to hide, and given the blurps that the scans for the Transmetal-2 dragon were usually in or around that area she wouldn’t have put it past the tyrant to utilize the space as home. As the mission settled into her processor she realized that if she passed up this opportunity she would not have a chance to fix things. “Tell you what,” she said as she focused back on Primal as stood up from her chair. “I’ll join them as soon as I’ve finished with my scans.”

Optimus thought it over for a moment, knowing that Rhinox would not have made the suggestion unless he believed that he needed to, and nodded to her. “Deal.” Looking back at the other three before him he gave his final orders and watched them depart down the lifts.

Ruby joined Rhinox at his usual station to receive her orders for that flight, the Maximal engineer sitting down before he began to pull up the program he needed. “A quick pass over the area should do for today, but I wouldn’t blame you for taking your time on this,” he told her quietly. “Dinobot and Rattrap seem to be in one of their moods today.”

She eyed the huge Maximal with a slight smirk. “Yes, sir.” A quick transformation into beast mode, Ruby hopped up onto the command table as she waited for the overhead doors to open.

Primal was still at the command table focusing on the holo-screen before him when she opened up her jets and leapt into the air. He eyed the closing hatch with a frown. “I hope you have a good reason for editing my orders.”

Rhinox smiled a bit as he looked over his shoulder at his friend and commander. “I’ve noticed she has a little tick to her when she realizes that she needs to do something.”

“Impressive observation,” the Transmetal ape mumbled a bit as he looked back at his screen. “It makes me wonder _what_ is going to happen today to warrant it.”

“That is for her to know and us to find out,” the Maximal engineer replied solomly as he went back to adjusting the scanners.

* * *

Fortunately for him working with the systems of the Ark back in the waning days of the Beast Wars gave Rhinox a better understanding about Autobot systems and how best to access them with the technology he was use to. While the prized laboratory was a spark of hope in the dark, without a solid source of power it would have to remain dark. There was also the risk of too much Energon use bringing the Vehicons straight to him.

Patrols were a threat to his survival and he did not have the resources to completely fortify the huge area. The truth was while the laboratory negated his need to search for spare usable parts he didn’t need to utilize the whole space. There were quite a few consoles that, with enough gutted out of them, had room enough to make a home out of. There were already piles of scrap scattered throughout the lab so he simply added to them instead of creating a new one to keep from drawing attention if the area was searched regularly.

After securing the access panel to the side of the machine he now called home, Rhinox had begun to unpack what meager belongings he had managed to salvage. It was far from perfect and somewhat cramped for a being of his size, but if it kept him safe long enough for Ruby to succeed then he would make due. The next order of business was to map the area to locate Energon storage areas.

* * *

After her fly over of Grid Omega, Ruby had started heading towards Predacon territory. Once she was sure she had gone far enough the flying squirrel activated her signal dampening device and returned to the Axalon. Since Rhinox and Optimus were still at the base she had to be very careful not to draw unwanted attention to herself. Fortunately Sentinel was not actively shielding the base since Silverbolt had returned to the ship just moments before she had so Ruby was able to access the ship through the gun turrets on the top rear of the Axalon. The sun would be setting within a few mega-cycles so she had to be quick.

Once in her room Ruby first opened her window before quickly digging her prize from its hiding spot, grunting as she pulled it free. The thing was still heavy, but she had made sure to wash it clean of the mud so she would not have to endure the nasty lingering taste in her beast mouth again. With a sigh at remembering how cumbersome the thing was to carry in the first place, Ruby quickly transformed into her beast mode and shoved the Golden Disk into her cheek pockets before taking off out the window. The winds were on her side this time, the skies void of storms, but the current from her flight still made for a more zig-zagged trip than she wished for.

The sun had begun to set before she had even spotted the mountain top she had acquired her heavy cargo from several lunar-cycles before. She spat out the disk as soon as she landed, rubbing her sore beast cheeks and neck with her paws before she looked around. Shock struck her as she took in the damaged area. Mentally giving the command to transform into her robot mode Ruby looked around at the scorched scene before her. Rocks had been overturned and thrown aside as if someone was in a rush to find something before he vented his anger with his fiery breath.

“Megatron did come after the disk,” she mumbled to herself, glad she had guessed correctly about a possible target for her foe.

The sound of a jet like system filled the air, and her with panic. Rushing to the opening of the mountain top, Ruby carefully peeked out from behind one of the stone pillars that surrounded the area as she spotted Megatron carrying Dinobot in his claws. The honorable Predacon did not look particularly pleased as they approached. Whirling around she tried to find the rock that Dinobot originally had hidden the disk under only to find it thrown against one of the surrounding stone pillars. She had to hide the disk and fast.

* * *

The flight was long, perfect for thinking, and Dinobot had a lot to think about. In the short time that he had spent with the Predacons, especially Megatron, Dinobot had come to realize that it was no true place for him. He was Predacon, but there was no honor with them on this planet. It was easy to see how Megatron’s perceived power had driven him further into the depths of madness. There was no care for his troops, not even an iota’s worth. No, Dinobot had come to see what the tyrant had thought of every single one of his crew: pawns to sacrifice for his own desires.

Despite not originally being Maximal, even when they were mortal enemies, Optimus Primal still showed Dinobot a deep respect. Primal cared for every single one of his troops under his command, even sacrificed his life for them all. Optimus’ need to protect them was probably the main reason he had followed Rhinox back from the dead. The adopted Maximal’s original question he had asked himself that morning, ‘was he really ready to betray his Predacon heritage for the Maximals?’, still bounced around in his processor. The more pressing question at the moment was would Megatron allow him to live after he regained the Golden Disk?

As they landed, Dinobot looked around while Megatron transformed into his own robot mode. The place was not as he had left it. Panic seized his spark as he slowly realized that Ruby’s foe, the future Megatron, had been here to steal the disk back. He had been foolish to not realize that Megatron wouldn’t have recalled this place after what had taken place today. If he, the future Megatron, had taken it then why had he not given it to his past self?

Megatron looked around as well, noting the burnt rocks that surrounded them with a dark frown. “Where is it?” he demanded sharply at Dinobot.

If he failed to produce the disk, Dinobot knew that his life was over before he even fully realized his failure. As he was about to speak both he and Megatron were surprised as Ruby, in her robot mode, leapt up from behind a grouping of rocks and stood on them before the pair, her hands clenched into fists at her sides, her head titled a bit forward while her face was firm. Megatron had instantly aimed his tail weapon at her, its power glowing ominously in the dark.

“What are you doing here?” Dinobot snapped at her, angry that she openly put herself in danger.

“I could ask you the same thing,” she replied, her calm tone belying her true feelings. “They said you were taken, I didn’t know this was how we’d find you.” A lie, she knew, but they didn’t.

“Things have changed, Ruby,” the saurian warrior snarled. He didn’t want her there. He wanted her to flee for her own safety. Dinobot had a sinking feeling that Megatron was going to ask him to do the worst thing in the universe if she stayed there, defiantly perching her tiny self on the stones.

“We don’t have time for this, Dinobot,” Megatron growled. “End her now.”

Taking a deep, snarled breath, the warrior eyed the Predacon leader. “She is a noble fighter, able to best a being ten times her size.”

“And as useless to me as you are becoming, yeess,” the tyrant countered.

“I also have the one thing that you want,” Ruby stated firmly, tilting her head up a bit.

Megatron smirked at the tone of challenge the tiny femme gave him. Her false bravado will cost her dearly this day. “What of your loyalty to the Maximals?”

Jumping down from the rocks, she did not flinch as both he and Dinobot stepped closer to her. Focusing up at her friend she hoped that her honesty was as open in her optics as she was trying to make it. “My loyalty lies with him.”

Dinobot snarled softly down at her, weighing everything in his mind. She was risking her mission on this very event. If Megatron didn’t believe her then her life could easily be forfeit and Megatron would win. There was also how Megatron would treat her under his command, if the Predacon tyrant allowed them both to join his ranks, and Dinobot did not wish that.

Megatron only smiled in satisfaction, noticing how the pair looked at each other. Stupid Maximal sentiment, he could utilize it to his advantage, but he would be careful not to let them get too comfortable with each other. If Ruby is as good as Dinobot says she is then the pair could easily overthrow him. Lowering his weapon the tyrant asked darkly, “Where is my Golden Disk?”

Ruby looked over at Megatron. “Not where Dinobot put it, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Dinobot fought warning her about the defiant tone she kept using, knowing that it would only serve in making Megatron furious at her. “You followed me that night.”

Looking back up her friend, the Transmetal rodent nodded. “I did. I also took the disk after you left.”

“And not give it to Primal?” Megatron scoffed. “I find that hard to believe.”

Ruby raised her optic ridges at the tyrant. “How would I explain to him how _I_ got the disk in the first place? I’m good at what I do, but bringing unwanted suspicions to my actions does me little good. Besides, I was trained by the best, though Rattrap would disagree with me on that.”

Dinobot fought a smile. Megatron had no idea exactly how the Maximal infiltrator would disagree with her, but that was not the point right now. “Ruby, where is the disk?”

Looking back up at Dinobot, she gave him an even look before tipping her head to the rocks she had first stood on. “Back there.”

Walking over, Dinobot reached behind the group of boulders to take a hold of the disk. Pulling it free, he contemplated it once more before he handed it over to Megatron. Knowing full well that he was giving Megatron the victory the he had been seeking since before the theft of the Autobot Relic, Dinobot did not feel honorable over the events that the tyrant had planned.

“Ah, excellent,” Megatron preened. “With this _little_ bobble we will write a new chapter in the history of our race.” Without wasting time, the purple Transmetal Predacon tucked the Golden Disk onto his person. He would not risk leaving it properly unprotected again, noo.

“Or destroy it,” Dinobot mumbled to himself, looking down at Ruby before him, his back to the Predacon leader. _Either way, I will know the truth at last._

“I assure you all will happen as I have calculated,” the tyrant stated before lifting his weapon up to take off Dinobot’s head. Ruby jerked, seeing Megatron about to strike him down and prepared to leap between them, when Megatron was suddenly taken down by a powerful shot.

“Whoa!” Rattrap said as he had finally made it up the stone steps, his weapon trained on the threat to his comrades. “Looks like I made it just in time!”

“Wrong,” Dinobot snarled as he powered up his laser eyes, “as usual!” He let the charge go straight into Rattrap. The Maximal flew backwards into a pile of rocks behind him. Ruby gasped in surprise, both of her hands covering her mouth in shock as she watched. Rattrap had told he some of this night, but not how Dinobot had nearly blown a hole through him. Or was this different because of her?

“Did I… miss somethin’?” the rodent based fighter mumbled in pain.

Megatron had not missed the action as he gained his feet back underneath him. “Welcome home, Dinobot.” Slowly stomping his way over, the tyrant aimed his tail energy cannon straight at Rattrap’s head.

“Rattrap might have backup,” Dinobot warned as he tucked Ruby further behind him, not wishing to remain there with the rodents there to witness his shame. “We should _go_.”

“Yeess,” Megatron ‘agreed’, thinking of one final test for the traitor to prove himself loyal with, “as soon as you exterminate this vermin.”

Rattrap looked up and around the weapon pointed at his head at the bot he had been working with for so long and had come to think of as his friend.

“He is defeated, it is unnecessary,” Dinobot stated powerfully.

“Call it a final test of loyalty,” Megatron taunted, “or should we have Ruby do it for you?” Privately Megatron was pleased when the cornered warrior pulled his sword free from his subspace pocket and stomped towards the grounded Maximal.

Focusing up at the Velociraptor based fighter, Rattrap was fuming. It was more of the anger he had with himself for trusting Dinobot as much as he had. The friendship that he thought they were developing, despite the fights that they always had. What had first been stabs of distrust had become playful jabs at one-another. Rattrap hated the fact that he had come to trust Dinobot with his life, letting his anger feed the look on his face as he looked into the optics of the bot that was going to take his life, having apparently already taken Ruby and turned her against the Maximals as well. “I always _knew_ you was a stinkin’ Pred.”

Dinobot’s processor kept running through everything, even as he lifted his blade while Rattrap looked away. If he was to regain his place at Megatron’s side he had to end his best friend’s life. Rattrap, despite the smaller bot’s questionable skills as an infiltrator and spy, had more honor than all of the Predacons, here and on Cybertron, combined. Despite their origins Rattrap was like a brother to him. Then there was Ruby standing behind him, watching. She had told him to trust his honor. There was no honor in this! Why was she allowing this to happen?

As Dinobot hesitated, Rattrap looked up at his executioner. There was a deep regret in Dinobot’s optics, a pain as they both realized the truth: Dinobot could not kill his friend. There would be the Pit to pay after it was all over, but he would let his honor guide his path.

Knowing that Megatron would strike him down for failing this final test, Dinobot quickly turned to face his true enemy, locking his blade with the energy cannon on the tyrant’s arm. They both pressed their full strength into gaining the upper hand before becoming slightly distracted as behind Dinobot Rattrap’s communicator chirped into life.

“ _Rattrap, this is Silverbolt. Optimus and I are on your position. See you in a few nano-clicks.”_

“Make it faster den dat!” Rattrap ordered.

Dinobot looked back at Megatron, “Your… _ambition_ has made you insane, Megatron. You will destroy both Maximal _and_ Predacon and all who came before.”

“Then return to your Maximals, if they would suffer a traitor like you in their midst,” Megatron snapped back as the pair finally broke free of their bladed stand-off.

Ruby couldn’t take any more of it, she pulled her gatling gun free from subspace and cocked it, standing firm as she aimed it at the Predacon leader. “Get lost, Megatron!”

The Predacon tyrant transformed into his flight mode and quickly retreated from the mountain top. He had his prize and the loss of Dinobot was still no real loss at all, but he would make the traitor pay for the setback he cost him.

As Rattrap gained his feet Ruby walked over to the pair after she stowed her weapon away. Dinobot and Rattrap had shared a silent look before shame made the taller Maximal look away. In the distance they could hear the approach of Optimus Primal and Silverbolt, the pair landing in front of the group in their beast modes.

“Dinobot!” Silverbot’s relief was palpable. “You’re alright!”

“What’s the situation, Rattrap?” Optimus stated, since Rattrap was in charge after Dinobot had been kidnapped.

“Well,” the rodent began, “you just missed Megatron. Oh, ‘nda… Ol’ Chopper-face ‘ere decided ta play Predacon again, even draggin’ Ruby along.”

Optimus looked up at the much taller warrior, surprised to say the least. Dinobot could not face the Maximal commander, not with this weighing on him. Ruby held her arms as she watched him walk a bit away from them.

“Dinobot?” Optimus inquired, knowing that he didn’t really need to ask the question they were all thinking.

“It is… true. I have betrayed you.”

Silverbolt couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “How could you? Your honor?”

“Is _not_ Maximal honor. It is Predacon honor,” Dinobot quickly corrected the Fuzor. “I… am Predacon. Though Megatron is close to achieving a _great_ victory I… foolishly believed I wanted to be part of it.”

“And now?” Optimus asked, his tone letting Dinobot know that he would listen to what he had to say.

Turning back towards them all, Dinobot snarled as he squared his shoulders and spoke from his spark. “I wish to fight with you until we win the Beast Wars, or are destroyed trying. If you would not have me, I will fight Megatron alone.”

Ruby’s spark seized in her torso at hearing his prophetic words. Quietly she walked over to him and held his hand in both of her own as Silverbolt began to speak, the action not going unnoticed by the others.

“I was a Predacon once,” the Fuzor said solemnly before looking up at Optimus, “you gave me a chance.”

Optimus already had a lot on his mind with what Dinobot had done and told them. Silverbolt’s words spoke of a second chance and hope, and surely Ruby knew better than to place her trust, and from the looks of things her spark, in the hands of someone that would betray them all. Focusing on the last one to confirm, Optimus was the most curious about what _he_ had to say on the matter. “Rattrap?”

“What?! Dhe! For bootin’ up cold! Ya know how I feel about Lizard Breath!” The Transmetal rodent ranted, all the while stirring up Dinobot’s anger. “Ya can’t trust ‘im! And he smells bad. Then dere’s de teeth! You ever seen ‘im eat?”

“By the Pit,” Dinobot yelled, stomping his way over to the smelly rodent, Ruby having move to hold onto his arm as he drug her over as she and Optimus both tried to keep him from hitting Rattrap, “how much of this drivel must I endure?!”

“Buuuut I guess I kinda gotten use ta ‘im,” Rattrap ended happily, smirking at the saurian fighter.

Primal, giving a smirk of his own, had heard all he needed to. Turning to face Dinobot he gave the warrior his decision. “You better change your activation code back.”

Dinobot was relieved. While the prospect was not ideal, if the Maximals refused to let him return he would indeed fight Megatron alone. “I am… grateful,” he informed his commanding officer before powering his systems down to make the changes. When he came back online he focused once more on Optimus. “I must discuss something of _great_ importance with you.”

“Time enough for that back at the base,” the Transmetal ape smiled. “See you there.”

The three in their robot modes watched as Primal and Silverbolt took off to the skies before they focused on their own way to return home. Ruby had finally pulled away from Dinobot’s arm now that Rattrap was relatively safe from harm and had turned to look over the scorched mountain top again. Dinobot had leaned over to whisper in her audio sensor as Rattrap transformed into his beast mode.

“Thank you,” he told her with a gentle purr. Knowing that he meant her protection of the Golden Disk, she just smiled up at him before Rattrap interrupted the pair.

“Maximal taxi, on de way home,” he pulled up beside Dinobot. “Ya need a ride?”

“So, I am to be punished after all,” Dinobot replied sarcastically, making Ruby chuckle as he settled onto Rattrap’s back.

“Ya know, I really thought you were gonna scrap me back dere,” the rodent said as he revved his motor. “How come ya didn’t?”

“Consider that a… rehearsal for the real moment,” Dinobot settled in further, looking around at his surroundings one last time. “A moment _I_ will choose.”

“Glad to have you back, Dino-butt,” the wheeled Transmetal rodent stated as he began to drive forward to the rocky staircase, giving Dinobot a rather painful start to the ride back.

“The pleasure… is all yours… Vermin,” he got out between painfully jarring landings on the steps.

Ruby just shook her head at the pair with a smile before she went back to looking over her scarred surroundings as Dinobot’s grunts echoed around her. She had gotten lucky this time in guessing his moves, but how long would her luck hold out? Transforming into her own beast mode, Ruby leapt free of the mountain top and slowly glided her way back home.

* * *

Megatron had come to hate the ruffling in his head as his memories adapted to the addition of information from the little time traveling rodent’s interference, but as this night’s events unfolded he was rather surprised. She had kept herself out of the direct events up until now, but taking his anger out on the mountain top had made her act openly to keep the events relatively the same. Dinobot still tried to grovel his traitorous way back under his command when victory seemed at hand only to turn away once more from the Predacons and all their glory, and for what? To later _die_ at the hands of the Predacons.

Despite having the Golden Disk in her possession, and in turn easily winning the Beast Wars if she had kept it or gave it to Primal, Ruby had given it up to save Dinobot. There was also the interaction between the two that would prove most beneficial in the future in a time of his choosing.

Giving a dark chuckle, the tarnished dragon rested his head back down on the rocks as he planned his next moves. “Check.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't own the show. Thanks for reading!


	6. Other Visits : Part 1

Tense was not a completely accurate word to describe the mood at the base after she and Dinobot had returned the Autobot artifact back to Megatron, but it was the closest Ruby could think of. Dinobot had become somewhat reclusive, not even bickering with Rattrap most of the time despite the other rodent’s attempts to start the fights. Whatever discussion he and Optimus had shared was overall serious, but neither one of them mentioned what exactly it had entailed to anyone else, which left Ruby guessing it was about Megatron’s later plans to destroy Optimus Prime and end the Great War in the favor of the Decepticons.

Morning had not broken the horizon yet, leaving their side of the world in the dark as to the events that would happen that day. Ruby spent most of the night pacing her room, fighting with herself over what was to come. If she were Megatron she would find any way to keep the Vok from taking Tigatron and Airazor from the planet. In her spark she knew that if she could she wouldn’t let them be taken either for a completely different reason. This was a key event and Tigerhawk a key player in events to come, but was there a chance to win this war without it happening?

Firming herself up, the Transmetal flying squirrel marched out of her room to the command center. Cheetor was on monitor duty, having traded earlier in the night with Dinobot. The kid was reading a book, feet propped up on one of the side controls, only pausing as Ruby walked over.

“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked her quietly.

“Something like that,” she mumbled. “I’m going to go ahead and get the scan of Grid Omega taken care of for today.” The roof access doors began to slide open, allowing the pre-dawn bird song in. “I’ll check on Tigatron and Airazor while I’m in the area, see if they need anything.”

“Tell them I said ‘Hey’, would you?” the kid smiled at her.

Ruby did her best to smile back, “I will.” She had to transform and take off to keep from blurting out the trouble ahead. If she failed to keep them on the planet it was going to be heart breaking for all of them.

* * *

If he only succeeded in this one endeavor, Tigerhawk would never exist. It would be easy to kill off Tigatron and Airazor while they were alone, but he swore that the Vok would not take the pair this day.

The sun was beginning to crest over the distant mountains as he climbed his way over the rocky terrain, the tarnished red dragon glaring at the valley below. It was filled with lush, green vegetation as fuzzy pink seed pods began to detach from their flowering hosts and began to float around on the current, taking to the air surrounding the valley. The fourth encounter was to happen this day and he would secure his victory in taking over the alien pod ship.

* * *

Airazor closed her eyes and took in a deep breath of the clean, crisp morning air, letting the air current guide her upward. The falcon nature to her beast mode gave her the urge to take flight every morning and she rather enjoyed the quiet time it afforded her. In all the time she had spent with Tigatron she developed something much deeper than a friendship with the white tiger. It was something that she and Ruby use to giggle about, but who would have thought that the daydreaming of two Maximal femmes would ever come true.

Glancing down at the still sleeping tiger, Airazor smiled to herself. He was always so polite, so caring towards her. Their closeness to the only planet they’ve known somehow drew them closer to each other. How could she not fall in love with him? But did she risk what they had now if she shared with him her feelings, or did he somehow feel the same?

Another glance down spied the white tiger stretching as he awoke, giving a mix between a yawn and a roar has he reached his front paws forward, his claws digging into the rock before he up righted himself onto his four feet.

Tigatron looked up at the sky and smiled. Illuminated by the rosy hue of the sunrise he watched Airazor as she was enjoying her morning flight. Primus could not have created a more perfect creature than her, not one that unknowingly grasped his spark in her hands. Each smile was magical, each laugh music to his ears. Here was a femme that was not afraid of taking life with both hands and living it to the fullest.

“Today,” he whispered in the cool, morning breeze as he watched her, “is the day that I share what I feel in my spark with you.”

Sharing a smile in their beast forms as she landed gently on the rocks before him, Tigatron and Airazor just waited in the quiet of the brightening day. As the white tiger took a breath to speak his communicator beeped to gain his attention. Airazor giggled a bit at his sheepish smile, a rather odd yet amusing look on the face of a predator, and waited calmly as he answered the call.

“Good morning, Rhinox,” Tigatron answered, his good mood apparent in his voice.

“ _Good morning, Tigatron,”_ the Maximal engineer replied in turn. _“Good morning, Airazor.”_

Again the falcon giggled, “Good morning, Rhinox.”

“ _What are your plans for today?”_ Rhinox asked.

“I believe the next grid in our path is Ziron,” Tigatron replied, having sat down with his tail flopping about lazily behind him. “We should be able to reach it by mid morning.”

“ _Sounds good. Ruby had also mentioned to Cheetor that she is heading your direction as soon as she’s done with her sweep of Grid Omega. Also, Optimus wants you two to return to base as soon as that sector has been cleared.”_

“We’ll keep an eye out for her,” Airazor replied. “See you soon.” As the communication ended the peregrine falcon tilted her head to the side as the tiger before her laughed. “What’s so funny?”

“It looks like your little sister couldn’t wait to see you again.”

“It will be nice to see her, too,” she replied with a flap of her wings. “Let’s hurry and get that grid scanned so we can spend as much time as we can together.”

With a tip of his head, Tigatron smiled up at her, “As you wish, my lady.” As Airazor took to the sky Tigatron gave one final stretch before leaping into a run. They had a lot of ground to cover.

* * *

He had to see her. Marching from his quarters, where sleep had been elusive, to hers in his beast mode Dinobot calmly pressed the ring button on the doorframe and waited… and waited… and waited. Frowning, he snarled a bit as the large talons on his feet tapped the metallic floor beneath him. She was not scheduled for monitor duty and usually spent her spare time at night in her room working on her figurines. Maybe she was on the bridge already for the day.

Turning towards the command center, the saurian slowly made his way down the hallway. As Cheetor passed him, apparently having just been relieved of his monitor duty, Dinobot stopped the kid only for a moment. “Have you seen Ruby?”

Cheetor motioned back towards the bridge slightly with one hand. “She left early this morning to get the scan of Grid Omega, mentioned going to see Tigatron and Airazor, too. She seemed really bothered by something.”

“I… see,” was all he could respond with. “Thank you, Cheetor. Have a good rest.” Leaving Cheetor to head to his own room, Dinobot continued his way to the bridge. _What is going on Ruby? You don’t do anything without a reason._ Seeing Rhinox working at his usual station, the saurian moved to watch over the engineer’s shoulder.

Rhinox was utilizing a new set of data points he got from the alien Golden Disk, which now floated in a stasis field beside his workstation, and had begun cross checking them with the alien structures they had already come across. Three of the five patterns on the disk matched a location, unfortunately leaving only two left for them to discover.

Rhinox only turned his head slightly to eye the Maximal beside him, contemplating the discussion he and Optimus had the night Dinobot and Ruby had returned the Autobot Golden Disk back to Megatron. He was trying his best not to be mad at his grand-sparkling, but was really necessary for her to have given it back? The worst part was that she had had it on the Axalon the whole time and not told anyone about it, not even Dinobot, who had taken the disk from Megatron’s possession in the first place. True, the warrior beside him had given Rhinox the alien disk right after Optimus’ return, but had hidden the disk he had helped steal in the first place from both sides. It raised the question internally: Was Ruby really his grand-sparkling and, if not, was she sent to aid the Predacons instead?

The question was gone as quickly as it had popped into his processor. Rhinox knew deep in his spark that she was not there to harm them, having several opportunities to have done so, though he would never jeopardize her mission to ask her.

According to Dinobot, Ruby, and Rattrap, Ruby had given up the disk to protect Dinobot. The part that actually hit Rhinox the hardest was what Optimus had shared with him, the extremely close interaction between Dinobot and Ruby that night, which he suspected actually began to develop when they got trapped in the cave together. The Maximal engineer couldn’t help but be overly protective of her, she was what the humans call his ‘flesh and blood’ after all, but he was extremely upset at Dinobot for almost dragging her over to the Predacons’ side of the war.

Turning to focus back on the data on the screen before him, Rhinox frowned thoughtfully. “Stop,” he ordered the computer. “Map known alien sites in relation to our position.” As the computer mapped a grid around the Axalon’s crash site and inputted the location of each marking an uneasy feeling settled in the Energon pump of both Maximals.

“A definite pattern,” Dinobot growled thoughtfully, scratching his chin with his bestial claws.

“One that we can use to find more of these things,” Rhinox replied, looking over at his companion, “if any still exist.”

“Better for us if they don’t,” Dinobot stated firmly. “We were fortunate to survive the alien’s last visit.”

There was a chance that the planet destroying moon could have been the last one, its purpose being to erase the planet it revolved around, leaving little room for any others to remain, but Rhinox would not take that chance. “Scan by grid to maximum range,” he spoke to the computer.

“Probable location of alien constructs complete,” the computer replied in turn.

Dinobot walked over to the command table in the center of the room to activate the holo-projection system, each gridded sector popping up over the image of half of the planet that Rhinox’s wonderful scanning system managed to map. In frustration he slammed his fist onto the table. Why was Rhinox even bothering with this when there was something more pressing than chasing after beings that believed they had already destroyed that world? “Tracking these ruins is a waste of time! Megatron is the greater threat.”

Rhinox had joined him at the table to look over the information himself. “You and Ruby giving him back the Golden Disk didn’t help,” he reminded the fighter beside him as calmly as he could.

Dinobot looked away, hearing the sharp undertone to the calm Maximal’s words and feeling a fresh wash of shame at both his actions and not only the threat it had been to Ruby, but the distrust she had gained from the others because of it. “We had our reasons, as I told Optimus.”

Knowing Optimus for deca-solar cycles before they crashed here, Rhinox frowned as he looked back at the screen. “Sometimes Optimus trusts too much.”

“Alien signature detected,” the computer broke in, cutting off any response Dinobot may have had. “Location: Grid Ziron.”

“Slag,” Rhinox could not have received worse news today. “Tigatron and Airazor were heading for that grid and Ruby was going to meet up with them.”

“We must contact them at once! If they trigger the alien defenses…” Dinobot was trying not to think too hard as to why Ruby would have been heading that direction, except to maybe avoid him, as he walked over to the communication’s station. Pressing the commands to bring up their communications, the saurian became even more frustrated when it failed to connect. “Gah! All comm-channels are blocked!”

“Megatron’s built another jamming station,” Rhinox stated darkly. Surely he would have warned Ruby about any of the encounters with these aliens, about how dangerous they were. “Rhinox to all field units,” he attempted, knowing that Optimus, Silverbolt, and Rattrap had left shortly before Dinobot had joined him on the bridge and hoping that Ruby was still close by.

Knowing that the fliers were faster at reaching the trio in danger than ground units would be, Dinobot headed for the lift. “Rattrap and I will destroy that station.” With a glance back, seeing that Rhinox didn’t seem to be paying him any attention, Dinobot transformed before accessing the lift. Rattrap would be easy to find, doing a normal parameter sweep like he did every morning. They would locate and take out that new tower as quickly as possible. “Did you leave to warn them?” Dinobot whispered his question to Ruby as the lift stopped before he ran into the open.

Back on the bridge, Rhinox was still attempting to call the others. The jamming station had to be close by and just gone operational only a few cycles ago. There was only one choice he had at the moment. Pressing a button on the console before him, the engineer called on the only one he had available. “Cheetor, I have an important mission for you.”

* * *

Cresting around the mountain just north of the valley with the alien, Megatron smiled viciously as his prey came into view. The Vok would not retrieve Tigatron and Airazor this day, but that does not mean that Optimus would still get to keep this pair in his crew. The dragon just needed to make sure he kept an eye out for that stupid Maximal flying rodent. Her interference had already cost him several assured victories and he was quickly running out of opportunities to win this war into his favor.

The sound of burning jets came screaming overhead, making him quickly duck his head down but his eyes followed the intruder. Ruby apparently flew right past him and was heading straight towards the valley. With a dark glare Megatron leapt from his mountain top and swooped to catch the rodent. He did not have much time before Tarantulas and whatever Maximal had stumbled upon them arrived.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own the show. Thanks for reading!


	7. Other Visits : Part 2

Ruby couldn’t fly fast enough, pushing her jets to their maximum. The communications were down, meaning that she didn’t have any time left. Barely dodging the craggy mountain top the Transmetal flying squirrel swooped down into the valley. “Tigatron! Airazor!” she yelled down at the couple, interrupting their kiss. “Get away from the plants! It’s a trap!”

Quickly looking around, Tigatron grabbed Airazor and yanked her out of the spot she was standing at right before a vine wrapped itself around her leg. Using her flight mechanism Airazor lifted both she and Tigatron off of the ground before more vines grabbed a hold of them. Since he was so much larger than herself she could only carry them a couple of meters, but by this time Tigatron was prepared. As laser shot began to strike the plants from above, the pair had returned to the ground and began to aid their friend. A dark shadow passing overhead made both of the Maximals on the ground look up only a few nano-clicks later, their jaws dropping in shock as they both spied the massive dragon heading straight for Ruby.

Ruby had transformed and was in a freefall, but was aiming with her wrist weaponry at the vile foliage below her. “I have to save them… I can’t let them go.” As the ground came closer she began to panic more, but not for herself. _Why are they looking up at me?!_ she thought for a split second before yelling down, “Airazor… behind yo-“ She only had a moment to hear the vicious roar of an angry dragon before it slammed into her. The sheer force of the impact blacked out her vision for a moment before she felt Megatron dig his massive claws into her. Screaming with pain, Ruby turned her weaponry onto the foe in front of her, shoving them into the plating surrounding his bestial wrist.

Airazor gasped in shock as a vine violently grabbed her around the midsection, hindering her ability to dodge any of the other vines that began to wrap themselves around her. Tigatron grabbed a hold of the vine around her midsection to pull it off only to have more wrap themselves tightly around him. With all his might the Tigatron pulled Airazor closer to himself, wrapping his arms around her and the vines that held them tightly.

“Wherever… we go… my spark will… find yours,” Tigatron vowed, clinging firmly to the femme he loved.

“And… mine… yours,” Airazor promised as she managed to find one of his hands through the tangled mess.

Megatron crashed into the valley wall, with the fist holding Ruby first, as the plant began to twist its vines higher into the sky in preparation to send its prey into the stars. Limping on with one bad fore-claw, the tarnished dragon turned his attention to his original targets as they were offered so neatly for him. “Good bye, Maximals,” he preened, building a huge fireball in his throat.

Ruby groaned as she tried to pull herself out of the rubble, but it was nearly impossible without the use of her legs. Between the crushing grip of Megatron’s claws digging into her back and being the first to hit the rock wall, Ruby was surprised she was still functional. Managing to halfway pull herself free, Ruby looked up in time for Megatron give his final farewell to her friends.

“No!” she screamed, managing to pull her gatling gun from subspace and aimed it right at the huge posterior presented to her.

Megatron yelled in pain, his fireball delayed enough to hit the energy barrier that now surrounded the pair of Maximals. As his head rounded on her, he aimed his ice breath at her. Ruby screamed in pain as her bottom half of her torso down became covered in ice, but his look of dark anger turned to shock as he heard a low ‘thunk-plop’ as she twisted the top handle of her weapon a bit, launching a grenade straight at his face. He only had a split second to dodge the massive concussive blast, but it was not enough to escape. The tarnished dragon tumbled wildly along the ground, crushing several of the plants in his wake, his whole left side scorched and his left wing almost completely blown off.

The blast cost Ruby as well, knocking her offline for a few moments as it sent her flying into the opposite direction, back into the rocky cliff face that she had managed to pull herself from before. Groaning she could only watch Megatron stumble to his feet, favoring more than just his injured for-claw as he turned to stalk towards her. Knowing that she would not be able to fight him off she decided that she would face her end with dignity.

The scream overhead from Cheetor as he zoomed past them stopped the dragon from finishing his prey. If Cheetor was here then Tarantulas would arrive soon. He had to escape soon before a paradox happened and put a premature end to every opportunity he had from this point forward. With the Maximal scout focused on his trapped friends, the barrier keeping him from saving the pair, the tarnished dragon quickly made his escape.

Ruby could only watch, trying to hold her head up as her foe left her field of vision and the Vok device came into view. Screaming both in pain and frustration she slowly began to pull herself forward, towards Cheetor, as the beam of energy shot upward into the sky, taking Tigatron and Airazor with it. Overwhelmed with grief, she dropped her head onto the rocks. If Megatron hadn’t show up she could have save them. The Vok wouldn’t have taken them away so violently and she would have still found a way to win the Beast Wars.

The scampering of metal across rock made Ruby jerk her head up in time to see Tarantulas make his way down the valley wall and straight towards Cheetor. Every move made pain shoot through her system, but she had to warn him. “Cheetor!” she screamed as loudly as she could, making the scout turn in her direction. Unfortunately he turned in time to receive the business end of Tarantulas’ weapon. Ruby could only watch as the Predacon turned the weapon on her before the blast hit.

* * *

The lack of communications only made the situation even more pressing as Optimus Primal flew as fast as he could over the terrain with Silverbolt in hot pursuit. There was also the sinking feeling in the pit of his fuel pump about the little tidbit of information Rhinox had given him before they had left out on patrols that morning: that Ruby was already in the field and had planned on seeing Tigatron and Airazor today.

 _What is happening, Ruby?_ Primal thought with a frown as they flew into the valley below. A quick scan of the area gave him the location of his scout, but what he had seen of the valley had been void of the others. “Cheetor!” Primal called, transforming into his robot mode and fell the last few feet to the ground. Quickly kneeling at his scout’s side he pulled out a nifty new device Rhinox had made before the last encounter with these alien creatures, designed to pull excess Energon from a Cybertronian in stasis lock.

The kid groaned as he came to, his systems one huge ball of pain. As soon as he was awake enough to look around he began to panic as he recalled what had happened. “Airazor! Tigatron!”

“Where are they, Cheetor?” Primal asked urgently, knowing that if something was wrong that time was not on their side.

“They were… inside that crazy plant,” Cheetor got out tightly. “It… it sent them into space.”

Looking to the sky, the situation set in hard in Primal’s chest. It was Silverbolt calling to him that drew his attention from the calm, icy blue above. The Fuzor had done a larger sweep of the area and had landed towards the far back wall of the valley. Helping Cheetor up to his feet, the pair walked over to stand beside a kneeling winged Maximal.

The area was a war zone, vegetation and rocks torn up with a few still on fire. Half laying on one of the boulders was Ruby, face down as if she was trying to crawl towards Cheetor’s position, her body covered with large chunks of ice. Primal quickly transformed into his beast mode, rolled her over and scooped the tiny Maximal femme into his arms, careful of her middle section that was no better than a few connecting cables and a thick covering of ice holding her together. “Silverbolt, get her weapon. Cheetor, take point. We’ve got to get her back to base.”

Neither Maximal wasted time in their orders, all three taking to the skies the next nano-click. It was as they were flying back that Rattrap’s voice broke through Primal’s communicator.

“ _Rattrap to Fearless Leader. Mission accomplished. Hey, you readin’ me Trans-Monkey?”_

“Loud and clear,” Primal replied, gently shifting his hold on Ruby’s back.

“ _Eh, sorry it took so long. We ran into a little, uh, opposition.”_ A loud thud interrupted the message for a moment. _“Whom we nailed! So, ah, get on de horn and warn de Ladies and de Tiger.”_

“Too late,” Optimus replied solemnly, looking ahead to the horizon. “Make sure that station is down for good and return to base.”

There was a heavy pause as the news sank in on the other side of the message. _“Uh, yeah… will do, Fearless Leader.”_

As the communicator beeped, Primal looked back down at the broken bot in his arms. “Why didn’t you warn us about this? Or did you not know?” He didn’t expect an answer, his mood not changing when she did not suddenly wake up to answer his questions. As he looked forward again he spotted Cheetor and Silverbolt flying ahead. “Or was it someone else that was taken instead originally and that battle you had changed all of this?” Not to mention the question of where the ice came from in the middle of the hot season in an almost desert like area, but in truth it was the only thing holding her together.

He couldn’t focus on all of these questions. There was too much going on right now to plague himself with them. Right now they needed to get back to the Axalon and talk to Rhinox and the others, after putting Ruby in the CR chamber.

* * *

Rhinox carefully peeked out from around the corner of the building he was using for cover. Since the incident that damaged his Temporal Stabilization Unit the Vehicon patrols had quadrupled, leaving him with extremely slim time windows to do anything. As he was about to leave his cover his processor got a sudden jolt of pain, making him stumble back into the alleyway behind him, crashing to the ground as he held his head.

He recalled the fight between himself, Blackarachnia, and Megatron on the bridge of the Axalon. He recalled clearly the loss of his arm as Megatron brutally ripped it off. Dinobot and Rattrap found him first, getting him to the repair bay since Optimus and the others were on their way there and they needed him awake and functional. It was as Dinobot was helping him off of the floor that the overhead doors opened up, Cheetor and Silverbolt landing first.

_Cheetor didn’t even wait to land before he transformed and ran over to the CR chamber. Silverbolt quickly moved out of the way as Optimus slowly entered the hatch, letting it close above him as he carefully transformed his hover board into his legs before he landed on the floor._

_Rattrap, Dinobot, and Rhinox all focused in shock at just the amount of damage the tiny thing had sustained as Primal gently placed her into the chamber, leaving a trail of water along the floor. Silverbolt had placed her weapon in it with her before the door closed._

“ _What happened?” Rhinox’s pain was all but forgotten at the sight of his grand-sparkling’s damaged form._

“ _De aliens did_ _dat_ _?!” Rattrap asked right after Rhinox had spoken. There was also the dark growl he had heard from Dinobot that had made Rattrap spare the saurian a glance for a moment._

“ _It’s possible,” Primal answered with a frown. “Let’s get Rhinox fixed up and plan.”_

_Knowing that there was nothing that he could do for her at the moment Rhinox let Dinobot drag him down the hallway. He would check her device later on, but his mind was far from what had happened to him._

As his vision cleared Rhinox still felt dizzy, but it was more from the emotional shock of the situation than the actual change. His grand-sparkling, his little hope… _he_ had sent her back to face an enemy that he catastrophically underestimated. Megatron, much like his namesake, had no qualms about killing an enemy to get what he wanted, but it was extremely clear now that he was not above absolutely torturing Ruby before he would offline her.

It was making Rhinox feel ill that he had sent her alone. He should have gone with her, fought the enemy in secret like Megatron had been, keeping himself from himself and the others. Sliding back underground, he knew that he would have to wait until later to replenish his Energon supplies. There was no way to properly focus with his memories altering like they were at the moment.

* * *

The week was almost out and Ruby’s repairs were still underway. In that time the mission of that day with the aliens’ flying seed pod ship taken by Megatron and later destroyed followed by a few menial patrols had passed. Dinobot would catch himself either watching the chamber door, waiting for it to open, or in her room, looking over the odd chess set.

Most of the pieces were in their starting places, but a few had been removed from the board and set to the side: the captured pieces of the now missing Scorponok, Terrorsaur, and Tigatron’s friend Snow Stalker. Naturally Megatron and Optimus were in the King’s position on the board, but there was a vacant spot beside them. It took a little while, but Dinobot slowly realized that it was the Queens that were missing from the board. Another telling detail to the set was the fact that Ruby had not made a figure of herself. Her personal foe was missing too, but he knew that she was smart enough not to make that piece.

As an odd thought settled into his processor he couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. He recalled Inferno calling Megatron his ‘Queen’. “How fitting that you should choose those pieces to omit,” he snarled softly in the quiet of her room. “The queens have the full run of the whole board, their moves relatively unlimited except by the pieces that surround them.”

Gently picking up the two missing Maximals, Dinobot tenderly placed them to the side next to Snow Stalker. It was as he was placing Airazor down that he noticed that the pair could hold hands. As his optics focused on the figurines tiny hands his Energon pump began to ache. Ruby knew they were in love, they all did, but what other details did she hide in the other pieces?

Stepping onto the bridge, Dinobot paused to look once more to look at the CR chamber door and inquire the computer about her progress. Rhinox, half turning in his chair at hearing the heavy footsteps, frowned as he simply watched as Dinobot made his way over to the scanning station to fill in for Ruby as she recovered. The former Predacon was all too aware of the sizable Maximal watching him, expecting him to mess up somehow and he couldn’t blame him a bit.

“I don’t know what game you’re playing with her,” Rhinox said suddenly, “but it stops right now.”

With a soft sigh, Dinobot turned to face his verbal attacker. “I play no game with her. She-“

“Was going to follow you blindly over to Megatron’s side of the war,” the engineer interrupted. “I don’t care what _you_ choose to do, but you will leave her out of it.”

It was then that Dinobot realized that Rhinox knew. It wasn’t his overprotective nature that the engineer had for all of them, especially when it came to the femmes. No, Rhinox knew about Ruby’s mission, why she was there, and the fresh loss of Airazor and Tigatron only fueled his need to protect her more.

“As you wish,” was all Dinobot said as he turned back to the scanning station.

* * *

The welcome she received as the CR chamber doors opened was quiet. Daylight was coming from the window screens, but the lack of life on the bridge was bothersome. Grabbing her gatling gun from the floor of the chamber Ruby stowed the weapon before stepping out. The echo of her footsteps was the only sound until the hydraulics system of the chamber door kicked in and lowered the cover back into place. Her spark was pulsing wildly under her torso plating as she slowly stepped over to Rhinox’s usual station. A few button presses lowered the screen back into place and began a sweep through the ship and the surrounding area.

Sentinel was active, but there was not another soul on the ship.

“They might be out fighting Megatron over the pod ship right now,” she mumbled to herself, attempting to calm her already wildly pulsing spark, her processor already telling her the worst.

Pulling up the ship’s log she was rather surprised at the amount of time that had passed. They had already battled the Vok ship that Megatron had taken over, winning the day by teaming up with Tarantulas and destroying the ship… two weeks ago. Also logged for that day was the heart breaking news that Tigatron and Airazor were indeed captured by the cruel aliens. Hanging her head she mourned for the loss of her dear friends. She knew it was going to happen, tried her best to keep it from happening, but all she managed to do was keep events the same.

Good for her, she succeeded in her mission.

The sound of her fist hitting the console echoed through the quiet room, her anger a palpable thing. “You had to be there, didn’t you? You had to slag this up… and for what?! So that they would have been taken anyways?”

The sinking feeling in her fuel pump hit her fast. Rhinox usually remained on the ship. What happened? Where were the others? As she brought up the logs for that day Sentinel began to give its alert about incoming signals before the defenses lowered. Surging to her feet she watched as six signals made their way to the ship at varying speeds. The over head doors opened up behind her, flooding the room with even more sunlight and her systems with relief as Optimus Primal, Cheetor, and Silverbolt flew in. They were damaged, but alive.

It was a pleasant surprise for them all that she was greeting them, her joy and relief bringing a shine to her optics as she ran over to Primal to help him to a chair. The lifts activating made her twist around with a smile as they slowly lowered and lifted again, Rattrap and Dinobot on one and Rhinox on the other. Since she was closer to the one that Dinobot had come up on she ran over towards him.

The saurian fighter gave her a slight glance, but without saying a word jerked his arm from her hands and marched purposefully down the hallway, away from all of the others. Ruby stood there, jaw dropped in shock and feeling as if she just went through one of Megatron’s beatings all over again. Did he blame her for their loss? Rhinox gently pulled her back into the room before he began to prepare the repair chambers for the wounded.

One-by-one they began to fill her in on what had happened and it gave her a more secure time-frame of where she was in now, but it was hard for them not to notice how distracted she was as she kept looking down the hallway that Dinobot had left through.

Rhinox’s optics narrowed at her thoughtfully, but he was sure that this was for the best for them all. The former Predacon was a danger to her, a danger he would protect her from at all costs. Her spark might be broken right now, but it was better now than later if Dinobot decided to pull another one of his recent stunts.

“Well,” she said as suddenly as she gained her feet, “since you all are going through repairs I’m going to go scout the area.” The lift was closest so she stepped through its door and let the device lower her outside. Quickly transforming into her beast mode she took flight, going above the clouds and out of sight.

Things were moving quicker than she thought they would. The status quo could not remain how it was between her and Megatron. Something had to change to even give her a fighting chance now that he was becoming more and more desperate, which meant that he would do absolutely anything to win. Dinobot would forever be a target until… Ruby closed her eyes, tears running from them down onto her furry cheeks. Maybe it is for the best that he pushes her away now. The distance would only help her when the inevitable came.

Feeling overwhelmed with emotions she landed on a large peak that overlooked the vast, scorched area that was known as Grid Omega. Megatron had his size advantage over her, no matter what time he was from, but the larger form was the more difficult to battle.

She will have to do something about that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own the show. Thank you for reading!
> 
> There was just so much invested emotionally for me about the first part of this pair of episodes that really there wasn’t much to say about the second one. Yes, the flying seed pod destruct-o-ship was great, awesome really, but it would have been repetitive and redundant and honestly easy to screw up if I had put Ruby there with it all.


	8. Bad Spark : Part 1

Cashing in on several of the debts Dinobot and Rattrap owed her gave Ruby plenty of time to work in her room at night. Her biggest issue on her mind, however; was not the one conductive to their survival. It hurt to have Dinobot all but ignore her. The only time he ever even spoke with her was when they were receiving assignments for the day. They weren’t even allowed to pair up on patrols anymore, which meant that she couldn’t get a chance to speak with him privately. Did he despise her that much over what happened to their friends? Would he understand if she told him the truth of the matter? Or would he even care?

Slapping the mound of clay down on her desk, Ruby groaned as she leaned back in her chair. It was stupid; stupid to have allowed her spark to cleave to him like that. How could she keep everything the same when all she wanted to do was save them all? Her last attempt had turned into a miserable failure, but if she had not followed her spark then history would have been changed anyways. Who knows? Maybe her Megatron would have been taken by the Vok instead and her mission over.

“That’s a ton of complications I don’t want to even think about,” she mumbled in the gloom of her room. Once the Vok influence had been removed by Tarantulas it would have tilted the end of the war in the favor of the Predacons. The goodness and love that had been the core of Tigatron and Airazor’s sparks were what gave them an ally in the end.

Wiping the clay off of her hands she decided to head to the bridge. Dinobot was on monitor duty and she wanted to try to speak with him before the others got there. The ship was still dark, the lights off or dimmed to save power while the occupants slept. The bridge was lit by a two screens and a single overhead light from the command table, the single occupant cast in almost complete shadow as he focused on his task.

“Dinobot,” she whispered, almost afraid to break the heavy silence in the room.

Half turning in his chair, he focused on her for a moment before finishing the turn and standing up as she walked closer. “Ruby,” he snarled quietly, his stance extremely neutral and far from the familiarity she had grown accustomed to, “how may I help you?”

She saw a pain in his optics, as if there was more he wished to say. Ruby knew that he had been pushing the others into trying to fight off the Predacons, that there was a deep urgency into finishing the war as soon as possible, and that was causing excessive amounts of tension on the ship. What could she tell him that would help ease his pain? “I… um…” _What do I say?_ “I wanted to talk about-“

The lights on the bridge suddenly brightened as heavy footsteps began to march closer to the command center. Ruby had turned around to see Rhinox step onto the bridge and give Dinobot a non-too-happy look before he turned to her with a smile. Looking back at Dinobot she watched as he put on that cold shell of his again and went back to his monitor duties while Rhinox began to bring up the holo-projection system for the command table.

Giving a frown as she looked between the two, the little cogs in her head began to process this new bit of information as the others began to file onto the bridge. Ruby realized that she would have to corner one of them to get the truth out, and that would most likely have to be Rhinox.

Clearing his throat, Optimus began to issue out his orders for the day. “Rattrap,” he began, “I want your usual sweep of the parameter and outlying areas. I want to know if Megatron’s built anymore jamming stations or outposts nearby.”

“Will do, Boss Monkey.”

“Silverbolt, it’s your turn on the scanners.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Ruby,” Primal turned his attention towards her, “I want you to scan Grid Omega as early as you can today and then join Cheetor.”

“Yes, Sir,” she replied with a nod, her arms crossed over her torso. The scans of Grid Omega had been showing a split in the ground, along with seismic activity that suggests that the split is going down to the core of the planet, making the landmass divide and separate. It was worrisome, but not unexpected. Earth had to have its continents after all.

Not wasting any time she was the first to leave the bridge using the overhead hatch as her means of escape. Rattrap and Cheetor both took the same lift down, the rodent staring at Dinobot, who had not acknowledge any of them in the room the whole time, until the saurian was out of view.

“What do you think is up between Dinobot and Ruby?” Cheetor asked him, since they had the privacy to talk about such things.

“Eh, I dunno, Pussycat. I think it’s just Dinoboob bein’ a jerk ta everyone.”

Shaking his head, the young scout swore that he would never understand relationships. “She’s really the only one that’s stayed on his side through all of this, too.”

“Never said she was dat bright either, now did I?” Rattrap muttered as the lift stopped. “Now get ta yer searchin’. We’ve got stasis pods ta find.” Transforming into their vehicle modes, the pair sped off to follow orders.

* * *

Sweeping over the dried remains of a swamp area, the murky water long gone from the heat of the alien moon ray, Cheetor frowned at how dark and moving the place felt. The area was alive with animals and reptiles, but what little trees remained alive struggled to survive in the harsh climate. It amazed him that anything could have survived, but that was one thing he was learning to appreciate about this world, its will to exist beyond all attempts so far to destroy it.

A glowing mass below him caught his eyes. Energon! But it was what had crashed into it that made it real news. “Long range recon report. This kitty’s keen sense of discovery has uncovered a mondo stasis pod, but it’s thoroughly thrashed. It plowed into a big load of residual Energon.” Flying closer to it Cheetor was able to get a better view of the top of the pod. “And it’s branded with a _big_ bad lookin’ ‘X’.”

The pause and the urgency in Primal’s reply _“Just hang on. I’m on my way.”_ worried the scout a bit as he touched down and transformed into his robot mode.

The sound of jets heading in his direction made Cheetor worry; causing him to draw his hands up in preparation to fire at the incoming target. There was no way that Optimus would have gotten from the base to his location that quickly, nor was the sound coming from the direction that the Axalon rested in. In the low lying clouds he could barely make out the flier, but when she came closer he recognized Ruby’s color scheme. As she landed he could only laugh nervously at the odd look she gave him. “Sorry, just a bit on edge.”

“Why?” she asked, pawing her way towards the stasis pod. “What’s going on?”

“Oh, nothing much, found this thing,” he told her with an air of importance to his voice. “I just relayed the information to Optimus, but he seemed worried. He should be here soon.”

Frowning at the pod Ruby transformed before she climbed up the side of it, careful to avoid touching the Energon, and tried to peek in. _Oh man, this is not good,_ she thought to herself as she looked down at the darkened optics of Rampage. Pushing with all her might, Ruby tried to lift more of the lid away to look at the sleeping monster.

Both she and Cheetor, whose forms now danced with excess Energon, looked up at the sound of more jets heading their way, both relieved at the familiar sound of Optimus’ propulsion system, with Silverbolt right behind. It seemed that the Fuzor was quickly becoming the right-field-hand to the Maximal leader, Ruby knowing it was due to his flight capabilities.

It was not exactly a happy look she received from Primal as he and Silverbolt walked closer, but she just shrugged it off. “You said to scout the area.”

Simply ignoring the remark, even though her sarcastic tone reminded him a lot of Rattrap, Primal lifted one of the extremities that was sticking out of the opening of the pod. “Perhaps it did expire,” he mumbled thoughtfully.

“What is this thing, Big Bot?” Cheetor asked, curious about the reaction this pod seemed to be receiving.

Knowing that the truth would be best, that his crew at least earned that right after everything they’ve been through, Optimus looked at his scout. “The dark secret of the Axalon’s journey. It was originally an attempt to replicate Starscream’s mutant, indestructible spark with a Maximal.”

“’Indestructible’?” Cheetor could have laughed at that thought. “’fraid not.”

“Well, it was a mistake to even try.”

Ruby had turned her attention back to the inside of the pod, crawling in a bit more as Optimus shared the rest of the ship’s history lesson. “Though brilliant, it was hopelessly treacherous and incapable of being recycled.”

“The Maximal that had volunteered for the procedure went mad during the process,” Ruby began speaking without thinking as she focused down at the still form. “Any trace of the bot he used to be had been wiped out in the process and he destroyed the outpost that was his monstrous birthplace.”

The others looked up at her in a bit of shock, especially Primal. Only a select few knew the whole story, and it appears that Ruby was one of that select few, but why? She must have read the look on his face because she gave a slight smirk as she shrugged.

“To put it bluntly,” she lifted her right hand in the air a bit, “I _do_ have a higher security clearance than you do right now, Optimus.”

“That’s right,” Primal agreed calmly. “Head of Security for the Earth Ambassador.”

“It was put on the Axalon for what reason, Optimus?” Silverbolt asked, his curiosity piqued.

Primal went back to looking at the appendage in his hand, checking for any sign of life. “To dump it; somewhere far, someplace barren.”

Everyone jerked a bit as an Energon charge went through the limb Optimus just dropped back into place, Ruby giving a nervous laugh. She really wanted to get off of the pod right now, but the guys were in the way. Cheetor’s slightly explosive passages of excess Energon ended up lightening the mood a bit, despite the nature of their discovery.

As the scout tried to wave away the offending smell, both Primal and Ruby, the femme holding the pod door open a bit more for her commanding officer, looked inside the pod. Another explosion drew their attention back outside of the stasis pod, both focusing on the scout as Silverbolt gave him a playful shove.

“Hey!” Cheetor protested, “it wasn’t me!” Another series of blasts hit behind the group, announcing the arrival of the Predacons Black Arachnia and Waspinator.

“Incoming!” Ruby yelled, her left wrist weaponry shifting into position.

As Waspinator dropped the she-spider to the ground and transformed into his own robot mode, the Maximals were busy trying to fend off the volley of shots coming from Black Arachnia. “The Predacons claim that protoform,” she stated between shots. Aiming solidly at Silverbolt, the Maximal Fuzor took the shot, hitting the stasis pod behind him which knocked Ruby backwards into the pod itself as the Energon below jolted the stasis system.

Waspinator’s one and only shot split the Maximal commander and scout, Cheetor skidding back onto his feet in time to aim and take out the poor Predacon punching bag. Waspinator landed head first into the still rather soft soil that was once the swamp bed.

“This is unnecessary. Its spark is extinguished. We were too late.” Primal yelled over at the black widow.

Pulling out a heavy explosive projectile, Black Arachnia loaded it into her weapon. “Pardon me if I don’t buy that load, Monkey.”

Optimus barely dodged the shot that she fired, but unfortunately it hit one of the root system of a tree behind him, burying him under thick, heavy ground. With Optimus out of the way Black Arachnia moved around to take out Silverbolt from behind. Fortunately for him Cheetor was able to warn him before the blast took off his head. Unfortunately for Cheetor, when Silverbolt dodged the shot it hit him, sending him flying backwards into a pile of Energon. The mix between jarring the Energon crystals and the excessive amounts that had built up in his system caused a chain reaction in the crystals, sending out a pulse wave that energized the stasis pod.

Ruby shouted in pain as the pod and its other occupant received a severe jolt, making her dizzy and weak from the overload. She was aware enough to hear several punches being thrown and Black Arachnia calling Silverbolt out on his chivalry. “Oh, the lover’s quarrel,” Ruby muttered as she rested her head on one of the many limbs of Project – X, the constant feedback of Energon on the pod threatening to short out her own systems. “Oh… I’m going to hurl…” she mumbled as she let her head drop down onto the body below her.

* * *

Ironically the thing that ended the assault on the poor white knight was Tarantulas arriving on scene, but it seemed that his sole purpose for being there was to attack the black widow. Trying to gain his feet and the feeling back in his head, Silverbolt could not idly sit by while a female was being threatened.

“Though threatening your own comrade is no doubt business as usual in the Predacon guide to villainy,” Silverbolt stated valiantly after he gained his feet below him before punching Tarantulas in the head. Then the Furzor grabbed and lifted the he-spider up into the air, “It is simply unacceptable behavior,” he gave the Predacon a punch in the gut to drive that point home, “in my book.”

Frustrated, the white knight threw his vile foe into the stasis pod before he reached down to aid the lady to her feet. Unfortunately the strike on the pod was the last thing that the Energon below it could withstand. The explosion set off a chain reaction that disrupted the very eco-system around them, sending everything in the area into the air as a violent Energon fueled tornado spawned, throwing both Maximal and Predacon alike away like scrap.

* * *

The surge of life was a blissfully painful experience. Oh! How he had missed the joy of it. The crash of his stasis pod only added to the blissful feeling as the jarring experience verified one very important detail: he was free. The pod’s function apparently had already been completed as his systems came online, updating him about his new form. There had also been some sort of upgrade to his form which only made him more powerful than before. The havoc he was going to rain down now!

The sound of a soft, gentle groaning made him realize in a nano-click that he was not alone in his stasis pod. “What do we have here?” he asked to no-one, his voice thick with sick humor. Using his many appendages, Protoform-X lifted the pod door away to let the natural light in, is crab like eyes taking in the Cybertronian female that had stowed away with him.

“Oh, my my. A tiny little femme that thought she would be safe in _my_ care?” he chuckled to himself as he clamped his right claw around her midsection to pick her up so he could exit the pod. Ruby was still offline, loose like a ragdoll in his grip as he felt her over with his antenna. “My dear little Maximal, how wrong you truly are. It is the smallest that I love the best. Their fear is so pure, so delicious to my spark. I will enjoy your screams the most, how lovely they will sound to my ears.”

Protoform-X made his antenna twitch away from his lovely little doll as he detected yet more prey, its screams coming from the storm that raged above him. “Let’s let your fears begin in here,” he told her as he gently placed her back into the stasis pod that had been his grave and shut the lid tight. “Let them grow so that their flavor will consume my spark all the more.” Turning away from the pod, Protoform-X transformed into his robotic form before heading into the surrounding fog, “But first, a little snack.”

Tarantulas landed heavily, feeling the pain in every servo of his form as he pushed himself onto his feet. The huge stasis pod that had everyone’s attention lay before him, silent as a tomb. He knew what lay inside of it, the fearsome creature it carried, but something had changed. The lid, which had been open when everything broke loose, was now shut. Slowly approaching the device, the mad scientists prayed that the creature didn’t survive.

Pulling with all his might, Tarantulas was taken aback by what he found. Not the huge creature that had occupied the pod before, but the tiny Transmetal Maximal flying squirrel, groaning as she started to come back online.

As her optics focused up at him, Tarantulas saw the firm look on her face turn to one of shock as she became covered in a shadow and focused past him. Feeling a cold chill run up his form, the Transmetal tarantula slowly turned at the approaching footsteps and screamed in terror at the horror before him.

Ruby knew that she was in the worst possible place she could ever be at and as soon as Protoform-X grabbed a hold of Tarantulas she bolted from the stasis pod and ran as fast as she could all the while the sound of the Predacon’s fearful, pain filled screams only partially drown out the sound of metal being torn apart. Above it all she heard a joyous laughter mixed with the words, “Run, my little pet. Run as hard as you can, but know that I _will_ find you!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own the show. Thanks for reading.
> 
> Oh wow, have to split this one into two. Let the hunt begin…


	9. Bad Spark : Part 2

“She was sitting where?”

Dinobot, in beast mode, snarled quietly at Rhinox’s reaction to Optimus’ quick report as the Maximal leader headed to the CR chamber. He had to agree with the Maximal engineer about how … lacking in thought … Ruby’s actions in the field were. Surely if she was as knowledgeable about Protoform-X as Primal proclaimed her to be then she would have known to stay away from the stasis pod, not sit on top of it as if it were a carnival ride. But, maybe, the experiment truly had expired and she knew it and that’s why she had felt comfortable with getting that close. The problem was that she and Silverbolt were trapped out in an Energon storm with three Predacons.

Primal entered the CR chamber, Cheetor’s repairs had already begun in the secondary chamber, but the fliers were only doing quick minimal repair sequence before going back into the field. With the bridge quiet again Dinobot focused on the scan results that Rhinox had been running as the large Maximal sat back down at his station.

 _Ruby should have known about today’s events, given how important it seems to Rhinox. Maybe she’s attempting to be like her foe and operate outside of the war itself, which would give her more freedom to act and her actions not called into question. That would also keep her from influencing the rest of us, no matter how small. Alright, stop thinking as if she will have any true bearing on events to come._ Dinobot thought to himself with a frown, his bestial talons tapping on the floor. _We only lost Silverbolt to the storm while Megatron has lost Black Arachnia, Waspinator, and Tarantulas, though Tarantulas no longer willingly works with Megatron anymore. Now would be the time to strike._

He would bring his thoughts to Primal’s attention as soon as he was repaired. The more time Megatron had the Golden Disk in his possession the less time the Maximals had to prevent their destruction.

* * *

The crunch of her metallic feet across the forest floor echoed painfully around her, but she still ran. The darkness and the fog that surrounded her only gave her dangerous foe more places to hide in, making her escape all the more prudent. With a grunt Ruby transformed into her beast mode and scampered up a tree. She opened up her beast senses to their fullest, listing to every sound around her, from the slither of the snake that was crawling around on the branches above her to the bull frog that was croaking over a mile away.

 _Stupid, stuipid, stupid girl,_ she chided herself in her head as she looked around for her pursuer. _You just had to go a’lookin’ at the monster in the pod. I can’t let him get a hold of me. Rampage is probably the only one, aside from Megatron, that can really mess up my mission._

Slowly what she had thought sank in, her frame relaxing. “It’d be risky…” If she could somehow talk to him, convince him to become an ally, she might stand a fighting chance. Dinobot saw Megatron and it only aided her, up until recently that is, and given all that Megatron will put Rampage through after he joins up with the Predacons it would give him a more healthy outlet for his anger issues.

So caught up in her thoughts Ruby didn’t notice the creatures around her grow quiet until it was too late. Something powerful grabbed a hold of her tail and yanked her out of the tree, sending her flying through the tree branches as his laughter echoed around her. Rolling painfully along the ground Ruby managed to transform into her robot mode, knowing that it would give her at least some sort of fighting chance if she could get her gun out. She didn’t even stop rolling before something powerful landed on her, his grip suddenly arresting her wild tumble. Her body might have stopped moving but the sensors in her head were still spinning.

Protoform-X smiled down at his prey as her optics and head rolled around a bit on the ground. “You didn’t give me much of a chase, my dear,” he whispered darkly down at her. “I thought you would give me more of a challenge since you’d have the most to lose.”

As he came into focus Ruby saw the sadistic smile on his face. Frowning a bit she wiggled to at least try to get more comfortable in his grip, but it seemed that the more she moved the more he laughed.

“That’s right, my sweet. Fight! Try to flee again! No matter how hard you try, you cannot win.”

Ruby just blinked up into his optics, doing her best to look as calmly angry as possible. In truth she was as afraid of him as she was of her Megatron, but she fought to keep her own reaction to the situation in check. A clear mind will win her the day. “I’m not trying to get away.”

This only made him laugh more before he pushed his robotic face closer, the huge creature easily four times her size. “Oh? So why do you struggle, hrmm?”

“You have me pinned on a rock and it’s sticking into my back.”

Protoform-X’s smile widened at her attempt to remain calm. Fine, he would play her little game and prove her a liar. Rolling her to the side a bit, he looked around at her back and actually frowned. She _had_ been pressing against a rock, but it could also have been a ploy. Tightening his grip with one hand he reached around and plucked the rock away and rolled her back into place, showing her the rock before idly tossing it aside.

“Ah! Thank you,” she smiled up at him, which only confused him further.

“Now it’s time for our little game, my sweet,” he stated with a dark relish.

“Play whatever game you wish,” she replied quietly, “but you take over my mission when you kill me.”

Protoform-X laughed outright, “Oh no, my little toy, I won’t kill you; at least not any time soon. You, I will take my time and savor your fear and agony.”

Ruby just smirked, keeping the urge to panic under strict control. “That’s fine. Just remember that in the height of it all it’s not you I’ll be screaming for.”

The sound of a fierce battle between two rather sizable animals echoed around them, making Protoform-X look off in its originating direction. Letting go of his tiny prey he transformed, giving a few snaps of his claws at the end of it. Ruby slowly got to her feet and dusted herself off only to give a slight yelp as he clamped one of his claws around her midsection rather tightly, lifting her off of the ground.

“Hey, what’s the big idea?” she mumbled, trying to pry his claw open to get free. Unfortunately he squeezed her so hard it made most of her systems black out, Ruby falling limp in his grip.

“I told you I’m not letting you go,” he told her darkly as he began a quick scuttle into the dark forest around them. “Just because you refuse to show your fear of me doesn’t mean I can’t use you to get the reaction from others. Don’t worry, my sweet, I will show you a good time. I promise.”

* * *

Protoform-X had found his new prey, the femme of the pair already screaming in terror at the sight of the many parts he had ripped from the he-spider that had been foolish enough to come across his path. As both Black Arachnia and Silverbolt focused on him, he shook the unconscious femme in his claw viciously as if she were a simple ragdoll before throwing her at their feet. Ruby groaned in pain, barely stirring from her harsh treatment, making Black Arachnia scream all the more as Protoform-X transformed into his own robot mode to tower over the unlucky couple.

Stomping closer to them, the mad Cybertronian was rather unimpressed at the Fuzor’s attempt to defend the little femme by stepping between the two so he simply back-handed the winged Maximal out of his way. Black Arachnia realized that she no longer had the protection that the Maximal had been attempting to give her, so she opened fire on the towering monster with her machine-gun legs, the bullets only making the mad bot laugh before he shot her, sending the Predacon into a pile of rocks behind her. Silverbolt threw one of his missiles at Protoform-X only to have it shot into detonation before taking a blow to his own torso plating.

Protoform-X could only laugh as he transformed back into beast mode. This pair was all the fun he had been hoping for, the fear he felt from them all became a sweet elixir he had failed to receive from the little femme he had found earlier. He would torment the hero first; knowing that his apparent noble attempts would only prove to be his downfall if the odd looking Maximal believed that he could not save the women. Taking the injured Fuzor into his claw, Protoform-X squeezed tightly as he lifted him into the air.

“Is that fear you’re feeling, Maximal?” Protofom-X asked, relishing the sensation. “Oh, yes. My spark, it feeds on terror. Let it grow, let it consume your circuitry. Feel it! Yes, feel it! Feel the fear!”

Ruby came to at Silverbolt’s screams of pain, also hearing Black Arachnia calling for the bot that she had slowly become endeared to. Ruby slowly managed to find her bearings and was on her feet in time to see Optimus and Cheetor flying out of the thick fog that surrounded them, both aiming for Protoform-X’s beastial head. At the hits the Transmetal crab dropped his prey and leapt around to meet his new targets head on.

Both newly-arrived Maximals transformed and began to fire upon the crab, quickly joined by both femmes present until they had driven the mad crab off of the cliff behind him. All four were looking over the edge to see how damaged their foe was, most praying that he was non-functional. To their surprise he leapt up from his back and transformed into his vehicle mode, resembling more a tank than crab now, even gaining chain treading as he slowly climbed his way back up to the top of the cliff. The four observing from over the edge had to move to dodge shots fired from his weapon.

“It’s… it’s unstoppable,” Black Arachnia exclaimed.

“Your persistence is futile,” Protoform-X called up to them. “I rise again!”

Seeing Silverbolt stepping closer to them all, Ruby moved out of the way so he could take in the situation. “In that case,” the noble Maximal yelled down to the tank as he pulled one of his projectiles from his wingtip, “let us give you further to fall.” Taking quick aim, Silverbolt let the projectile fly towards its target, wedging itself between the treads and the wheel mechanism that ran the tank form, tearing it apart.

As Protoform-X broke apart and fell, he transformed one last time and pulled his weapon free and fired a rocket before falling over the edge of yet another cliff. The explosive projectile hit the cliff face where Black Arachnia had been standing and sent her flying backwards. Silverbolt ran after her, leaping off of the other side of the craggy area they had found themselves in, swooping in to save the day.

The only thing that Primal, Cheetor, and Ruby could do was watch as the pair came back up, Black Arachnia quickly leaping from the Fuzor’s arms before running off. Before he could pursue her Optimus gave the order for them all to return to the base.

Ruby looked over the cliff edge one last time as the others took to the air. It was extremely dangerous to be dragging Rampage into her fight like she was planning, but hopefully she would be able to handle it. “I have a feeling I’d end up having to sell my spark to Unicron to succeed,” she mumbled before transforming into her own flight mode and followed the others back to the base.

* * *

“What were you thinking?”

Ruby sighed a little as her head dropped. Rhinox had been a bit edgy since they returned to the base but had waited until Optimus, Cheetor, and Silverbolt had left again to find Protofom-X to put him back into stasis before the engineer began his lecture. Turning away from her station, the little Maximal femme got up onto her feet to look her grand-sparker in the eye. Well, at least as close to it as she could with their height differences.

“I was thinking I wanted to take a look at it,” she replied, not exactly happy about the grilling she was receiving.

“You are knowledgeable about the project. You _knew_ how dangerous it was.”

“Oh? Really?” she asked, putting her hands on her hips before she leaned closer to him. “ _I_ was supposed to know that it was still functional?”

Rhinox caught himself before he spoke, almost answering her in a way that would reveal that he knew things he wasn’t supposed to. Taking a deep breath he held his mouth tightly shut until he calmed down. “You have just been making a lot of questionable decisions lately that have me worried.”

“You mean the mountain top.”

“That’s part of it, yes.”

“You told Dinobot to avoid me, didn’t you?”

She had crossed her arms over her torso, the dark red orb resting above them catching the dim light from the ceiling of the command center. Even the defiant look on her face was one that he recognized all too well, a look he wore when he was a sparkling himself. If he wasn’t so upset about the subject, Rhinox might have laughed at how adorable she looked.

“You were willing to join up with Megatron? Do you think I could have fought against you? That any of us would have shot at you or Dinobot or did you not think about how much it would have ripped us apart to have you have betrayed us like that?”

“I followed what my spark was telling me.”

“Your spark was going to get you, Dinobot, _and_ Rattrap killed,” Rhinox snapped at her.

“This coming from a bot that follows his own spark and is considered a miracle worker for it,” Ruby snapped back, her right arm shooting out to motion towards the center of the room behind him, “You followed Primal to the Matrix and almost got yourself killed.”

“That’s different,” he replied, calming a bit as her point hit home. He had risked it all for a sliver of a hope.

“I _know_ Dinobot is a good bot,” she whispered powerfully.

“I still don’t want you around him right now. He’s been pushing for dangerous things and I don’t want him talking you into a suicide mission.”

“So I have to suffer with a broken spark.”

Rhinox sighed, angry at himself for causing her the pain but knowing that it was for the best. “It’s only a temporary pain, Little One.”

“This isn’t fair!”

“No one said that war was fair, Ruby,” he told her calmly, “nor is love.”

“’The heart doesn’t let you choose who it loves, nor does it let you choose how much you love whom,’” she replied, quoting a dear friend. “If you knew that you would have lost Tigatron and Airazor would you have loved them any less than you do?”

“That’s not my point here.“

“No, but this is mine,” she interrupted. “I loved them as if they were family. I loved them as much as I could and more and I wouldn’t have changed that for _anything_ in the universe.”

“This will give you time to think about your feelings and if they’re true or not.”

Ruby growled a bit and stomped towards the lift. “I don’t _want_ time,” she almost yelled at him as she got onto the lift and let it lower her down.

Rhinox almost followed her, not ready for his lecture to be over with, but he knew that she needed some time to think. Frowning, he sat down at his usual station and took over her monitor duty. Young sparks needed to learn wisdom, but sometimes they could only learn that wisdom the hard way.

* * *

Dinobot had been looking out of his window, able to see the spot that he and Ruby would escape the ship to for their private conversations. It was in scanning shot of the ship’s computer and eyeshot for anyone who bothered to look. He missed their conversations, the honesty and bond he had developed with Ruby. It took every ounce of will power to not run to her when they had returned to the ship, to not check on her as soon as she was out of the CR chamber. Rhinox watched him so closely he could swear that the Maximal engineer had bugged every square inch of the ship.

Outside he could see a dark figure flying around in the sky before it landed at their spot. It was her, he knew it in his spark it was her. He had to speak with her. This separation was pure torture. With a growl the warrior marched out of his room and down the hall to the command center. The lifts were the quickest way there, but he stopped short as he stepped onto the bridge of the ship.

Rhinox had turned in his seat and was staring at him as soon as he entered. “What’s wrong, Dinobot?”

Thinking as fast as he could, Dinobot stood up straighter, “I was going to fill in for Ruby’s monitor duty tonight since she was injured from her mission earlier.”

Rhinox turned back to the station. “I decided I would fill in for her, but thank you for your consideration.”

Knowing that he would not be able to exit the ship without Rhinox knowing, Dinobot marched back to his room. Turning out the light he walked back over to his window to watch the little shadow in the moonlight.

* * *

Setting the device he was repairing down, Rhinox sighed as he rubbed his head. The more emotional the changes were the more pain was associated with them. There was very little, if anything, that he and Ruby ever fought about. She was usually a very level headed sparkling, but she always put her spark into everything that she did.

The question she had asked him rang true. It gave away some of the nature of her mission, even though he had figured most of it out before hand, but her words still stung. If he had known that he would have lost three of his best friends would he had loved them any less or would he have loved them more in the time that they had been allowed?

“Oh, Ruby,” he whispered in the quiet around him. “If I knew back then what I know now I wouldn’t have hurt you like that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own the show. Thanks for reading.


	10. Forced Move

With the painful changes subsided, Rhinox was able to focus on the retrieval of the supplies that he needed. It took time to learn all the new routes to the surface, but he couldn’t have planned for a better location. The network of tunnels above his newest home branched out easily to any point in the main city that he could want. Unfortunately it also meant more Vehicon troop movements he had to avoid while out hunting for supplies. He had yet to run across the huge enforcer that had messed him up before, but the Maximal engineer counted himself fortunate in that bit of luck.

It took more time than he wished for it to have done so, mostly due to having to search out the parts he needed, but he had built a backup of the temporal stabilization device to carry with him. There was also a modification to his usual weaponry that he had added as a precaution in case he ran into his new friend again. Recalling Ruby’s new weaponry, he was inspired by the grenade launcher that went with it. If it came down to it, he would introduce his new friend to a new toy of his own.

Rhinox paused for a moment before he grabbed his upgraded weaponry from his work bench, reaching into his subspace pocket. Opening his hand he looked at the tiny needle tipped projectile that rested in his palm as it caught the light, the dark almost black liquid streaked with glowing dark blues and greens. With a nod Rhinox tucked it back into his subspace pocket, grabbed his gun, and headed towards the surface.

* * *

In the middle of the night Ruby was pacing around in her room as if she were a caged animal. Honestly, she felt like installing a giant running wheel on the wall for nights like this. A few back flips off of the walls helped, but she still couldn’t stay still. Peace had been illusive in the base since her fight with Rhinox. She had never known him to think irrationally which, in her personal opinion, was how he was behaving. If he only knew what she did Rhinox wouldn’t have been so harsh on them.

The sound of her armored feet scraping across the floor at her sudden halt was painful to her audio receptor as she came to an abrupt halt as she realized what the problem was. Rhinox _didn’t_ know what she did and he wouldn’t until it happened. He was trying to protect her from what he thought he knew and would stand firm on that, no matter how much she would fight him on it. Why couldn’t he just trust her judgment?

With a groan she rubbed her face as she flopped down in her desk chair. Her fight with Rhinox was inconvenient, but it was her fight with Megatron that would make or break history. If she had to guess he would go after Dinobot in the valley to prevent that major blow to the Predacons. Humans were important to the Great War and it was Dinobot’s sacrifice that would insure that they would be there for it. There were also the after events to consider. She doubted that Rampage would be of much use right now since Megatron would be keeping his new soldier close at hand, but could she really afford to trust in the mad Cybertronian?

“Trust in yourself,” she mumbled with a sigh. “I need to get him out of the way for a prolonged period of time.” Realizing that she was talking out loud she looked at the door quickly to make sure it was closed. Finding herself safe she relaxed a bit and tried to focus on her problem again.

With his Transmetal-2 state she could not easily put him into stasis lock, and burying him in rocks was not only becoming ineffective, but quite repetitive and dull, an expected attack at this point. What could she do that would keep him out of the way for as long as possible with what she had? The only thing that was that potent was Cybertronian spider venom and Rhinox kept all of that information under digital lock and key, only accessible from his main station on the bridge of the ship. The second problem was that the files’ had to have two senior officers’ pass-codes to access them, in this case is Optimus and Rhinox themselves. It would take time to hack the files and she feared she was running out of it.

With a defeated sigh she rested her head on her crossed arms on her desk. Tricking the two into giving up their codes was going to possibly be more difficult than actually defeating dragon Megatron. Surging to her feet, the femme marched herself out of her quarters and headed to the bridge. If she didn’t get started trying to crack the codes now then she would lose what time she had to get it done. Rattrap was on monitor duty, so she wasn’t really surprised to find him playing one of his video games to pass the time.

The Maximal infiltrator was rather startled when someone behind him suddenly cleared their throat, not having heard or felt them approach, quickly shutting off his game and turning around just in case it was Optimus. When he only spotted his fellow rodent, his frame relaxed. “Ruby, nice ta see ya! Can I… er … help ya?” he asked as he noted how sad she had become. He might agree with Rhinox about Ruby staying away from Dinobot for a little while, but it didn’t mean that he had to like the results of it.

“I came to fill in for you tonight,” Ruby told him quietly, looking over at Rhinox’s station for a moment.

Rattrap followed her gaze and silenced the hundreds of questions that popped into his head as he got up onto his feet. “Uh, ya sure ‘bout dat?”

“I’m going crazy pacing around in my room,” she replied with a tired smile. “I’ll even sweeten the pot for ya and take off five of the nights you owe me.”

He thought getting out of monitor duty tonight was a good enough deal, heck he’d even let Dinobot kick him around like a football if he was stupid enough to pass up this offer. “Deal,” he nearly shouted, wincing a bit but kept his smile. “I’ll see ya in de mornin’.”

With a final wave to her uncle, Ruby sat down at the monitoring station to wait. Utilizing the tricks he had taught her, she could only smile as she listened and felt Rattrap watching her from around the corner of the hallway before eventually making his way to his quarters. Primus bless him, he was probably thinking that Ruby was going to do something mean to Rhinox’s settings to get back at him, but her hacking was more benign than that; at least to the Maximals. A quick hop over to the engineer’s station and Ruby was bringing up all the program files she was going to need.

It only took two tries before the computer actually threatened to lock Ruby out. The bypass trick that Rattrap had taught her during their training sessions was of no apparent use now. Rolling her optics as she shook her head Ruby realized how stupid her plan really was. Of course the system would have been locked down from this angle and any other angle that the infiltrator could think of, Rattrap was the one that cracked the system when Sentinel went haywire and tried to kill the Maximals off in their own ship. Add to that that Rhinox would utilize his friend’s natural talents to further secure the system.

With a sigh, the Maximal femme rubbed her head. Her processer ached terribly and it did nothing to aid her in her endeavor. She was stuck and wanted to scream. Closing her optics Ruby was doing her best to will the pain away and think of a solution, but the rustling in her head would not stop. This was Rhinox! Who knew the bot better than her?

Her frame relaxed as she recalled some of her early solar-cycles with him. He had begun teaching her on a system similar to the Axalon’s when she had expressed a desire to follow in his footsteps and become a ship’s engineer like he was.

_Rhinox smiled down at his young grand-sparkling as she did her best not to bounce around in the seat. She had awoken him bright and early for their first day of training and he wasn’t sure who was more eager to start. Clearing his throat seriously, he began to walk her through the systems._

“ _The ship’s engineer will have the most access to all of the ship’s systems, but his security clearance cannot exceed the ship’s captains. There will be times that the captain’s access codes will be needed, upgrades to the programming and the like.”_

“ _Yes, sir,” she nodded, trying to calm her smile into a serious look._

“ _I have pre-programed quite a few scenarios for you to work on, but unfortunately there will be times that I will be away while you are training,” he said calmly before smiling at her. “I also have a feeling that you’d be sneaking in here as well, so I’m going to make sure that you have both access codes to properly work through.”_

_As she watched him input the codes she became curious. “Grand-sparker, wouldn’t we get in trouble if you use your actual code?”_

_The smile he gave her was kind, far from reprimanding, as she would have expected from any other trainer she might serve under. “They’ve retired these since, but these were the access codes Optimus and I used on the Axalon when we called it home.”_

_Blinking up at him, the tiny green and gold femme was rather shocked. “You knew your commander’s pass-codes?”_

_Nodding, Rhinox only turned his attention back to the station. “He entrusted it to me because he knew that he would not always be around for what I would need it for.”_

“ _Like when the Vok had taken him in that probe thingy near the beginning of the Beast Wars.”_

_He had to quickly curb this back to the training at hand before she started asking to hear more stories. “Back to the task at hand, Little One.”_

Her hands flew across the system with a mind of their own, the computer happy to grant her the access she needed. “Of everything, how could I have forgotten that?” she sighed and began to access exactly what she needed.

“Computer,” she waited for it to beep in acknowledgment, “synthesize both known blends of cyber-venom.”

“Please state quantity,” the male voice requested.

“Enough to drop a medium sized Autobot,” then she frowned. “Slag that command. Make enough to drop a large Autobot, but adjust the formula to condense it as much as possible.”

“Warning,” the computer stated, “if administered, this amount could cause the target’s spark to fail.”

“Right now I’ll take that chance,” she replied quietly.

“Acknowledged.”

The CR chamber began to whirl into activity behind her as she moved back to the scanning station. Hopefully this would handle her problem, but for how long she was not sure of just yet.

As Ruby got up from his usual station, Rhinox ducked back behind the CR chamber he was peeking around. The computer had altered him about the attempted access to its systems and he had simply wished to check as to what was going on. To his surprise Rattrap was not on the bridge any longer and Ruby was sitting at the engineering station, apparently frustrated over not being able to access what she wanted. The question he wanted to ask her was: Why?

Of course, he knew part of the why. She was most likely trying to find an edge since her foe was dealing more damage each time their paths crossed. Ruby was needing something only he and Optimus had access to and apparently had utilized something Rattrap had warned him about to do it. They both were apparently stuck. She couldn’t proceed without doing damage and he could not openly give her access without reporting it to Optimus and quite possibly the others finding out as well.

It had only taken a single thought of maybe training her in the future about the systems before she muttered something and began to type again. His optics widened as his jaw dropped at her imputing their access codes. He had figured out how to aid her in her mission and not directly involve himself in current events.

As he quietly made his way back to his own quarters, Rhinox frowned. If he was able to change a memory within Ruby’s processor, what changes was Ruby making with just her being there?

 _Can’t do anything about it now,_ he thought to himself, _but I can help her with little things here and there._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own the show. Thanks for reading.
> 
> A chapter with something important, but I think I really just wrote this to prolong the inevitable…


	11. Code of Hero : Part 1

Once the system finished synthesizing the cyber-venom for her she was able to proceed with the next phase of her weapon, the delivery system. Her request, though concentrated, still came out larger than she had hoped. It would be easier to get a smaller point between his scales, but the vessel that she would have to use for a single dose would be too big for her to be able to use efficiently, so she adapted her original idea into six, needle tipped projectiles that could be hand thrown or loaded into her gatling gun and one larger one to shove into the belly of the beast once he was down.

Her hands had been steadily working on her newest weapon as she waited for the crew to join her that morning on the bridge, the cyber-venom safely tucked away in her room once it had been completed. Rhinox, as usual, had more scans and figures to run, but he did not request her to do her usual scan of Grid Omega. Rattrap was up bright and early to run his usual border patrol of the Maximal’s territory. Silverbolt, Cheetor, and Optimus had quickly headed out on their usual scout patrols and no-one dared mention Dinobot in front of Ruby.

Rattrap, having returned after a rather uneventful roll around the area, greeted Rhinox and Ruby as the pair sat on the bridge. The engineer was busy working at his calculations and mumbling thoughtfully to himself while Ruby was working away at the command table, using the seat from the station to the left of Rhinox’s. He was admiring the most impressive turnaround of spare parts that the infiltrator had ever seen. Giving a whistle, Rattrap picked up one of the completed projectiles, moving it around in the overhead light to take in the complex remodel. She was almost as good as Rhinox into turning junk into something viable, if not better.

“Dis is impressive, kiddo,” he complemented, “but, uh… what is it?”

Ruby looked up at him and tried to smile, “A fluid injection projectile.”

“Oh! Like en emergency Energon shot.”

“I… guess so,” she mumbled as she took it from his hands and set it back on the table with the others.

Rattrap only shrugged and walked over to the station on the other side of hers to file in his report. Eventually more mumblings from Rhinox led to the large Maximal to call their commanding officer back to the base. Whatever it was that he found with his calculations was important enough to pull Primal off of his patrol route. It took time, but eventually Optimus Primal entered the ship via lift. Looking over at the one that called him back to base he inquired, “So, what is it?”

Turning to face his commander, Rhionx asked him, “Remember that Transwarp Cell explosion?” The only sound in the room was a snort from Ruby as she struggled to keep from laughing as both Optimus and Rattrap turned a rather sharp look at Rhinox, both unable to believe he asked what he did. “Ok, stupid question,” the engineer admitted before turning back to his station. “Anyway, I’ve been calculating its path. The temporal wave front is moving into the future at an accelerated rate. It’ll reach Cybertron in approximately 2.218 Deca-cycles.” Rhinox looked up at Primal, “They’re going to know where we are.”

“The question is, has Megatron made the same calculations?” Primal asked thoughtfully.

Rattrap at this point focused back on the others in the room. “Well, if I was a bettin’ rodent, which I am… ooooh yeah.”

Nodding to acknowledge his second-in-command’s words, Primal glanced at Ruby. She had not looked up from her work and had calmed down rather quickly as she focused back on it, switching tools out as she needed. She was preparing for something big, they should be as well. Optimus turned back to look at the chart on Rhinox’s screen. “We better start increasing the base defenses.”

Ruby shut her optics tightly for a moment and struggled to keep her mouth shut. She could tell Optimus what was going to happen. Tell Rattrap or Rhinox as well. One of them could save the day. Rattrap could save Dinobot. If she would only speak up it would save them all a terrible loss. But doing so would open up so many questions that she could not answer and go against what her grand-sparker told her before he sent her here.

 _How can I let him die?_ It was someone putting a hand on her right shoulder that made her look up.

“I know you and Big Green over dere an’t gettin’ along right now,” Rattrap began quietly, “but he’s just tryin’ to look out for ya. We all are.”

It took every ounce of her will power to not blurt out what was really on her mind. Shaking with the frustration that had been building up recently, Ruby got to her feet and gathered her project. “I know, Rattrap, but I just wish the whole lot of you would trust _my_ judgment.”

The three bots on the bridge watched her march down the hallway to her quarters, sharing a look with one another before they began to discuss what defenses needed to be focused on first. Rattrap’s mind was working on two different problems at that moment, however. He gave his input when asked, but he was also trying to figure out how to fix Dinobot and Ruby’s situation. Ruby was a good kid, even though she too easily put her spark in the wrong claws, and Dinobot… well, he’d have to straighten out that sorry piece of saurian before he could let the former Predacon near the tiny Maximal again.

* * *

It was just under two mega-cycles later that Ruby had finally finished her new projectiles and had them filled. A glance out of the window indicated that the sun was already at its high point in the sky which meant that she was running out of time. Her Uncle Rattrap had told her about this day in so much detail that she could have sworn she lived it all before. There had been so much regret and remorse in his voice as he shared his painful memories with her that she knew that if he could have changed any of it at all he would have.

“If you were in my place, knowing everything that you do, would you have gone with Dinobot?” she whispered knowing that she would not get a reply.

Having loaded the larger container into her subspace pocket, Ruby was placing the six smaller dart-like projectiles onto a harness when something out in the hallway got her attention. With the harness in her hand, only having placed three of the projectiles in it, Ruby stepped out into the hallway and quietly headed towards the voices. Peeking around the corner she saw Dinobot and Rattrap staring each other down, hard.

“Go ahead, rodent,” Dinobot demanded, tapping Rattrap’s chin with a couple of the words to drive his point home, “push it one more inch.”

After a very tense moment, Rattrap suddenly shoved Dinobot away, surprising the warrior with not only the move but the force the rodent put behind it. “Ya know, I useta figure I had you pegged,” the Transmetal fighter stated, waving his ratchet around as emphasis. “Oh, yeah! He’s a slag spoutin’ saurian, but at _least_ you know where he stands!” Turning the section of the wall that he had been working on, Rattrap tapped the switch to close it back into place with a sigh. “Guess we live ‘n learn.”

Ruby didn’t bother to hide herself as Rattrap passed; the other bot so lost in his thoughts that he was actually startled a bit as he saw her, her arms crossed and her face firm. The first thing that went through his processor was how much Ruby looked like Rhinox when the big lugnut was angry about something and by that look she must have overheard most of, if not all of, their conversation. The second thing was that he had not sensed her at all nearby until he had almost run into her. The third thing Rattrap thought of was that had to get away from the pair before he actually lost _his_ temper. When she didn’t speak he continued to walk to the lift and let it shut.

Quietly Ruby peeked around the corner again, fighting the urge to rush to Dinobot’s side as he transformed and walked away, speaking to himself as he went. This was the moment Rattrap had told her that he had last seen Dinobot before the valley. Rushing back to her room she grabbed the last three darts and rushed out again, but in her haste she left one spinning slowly on her desk. She was almost on the bridge shoving the last one in when she realized her mistake, but she didn’t have time to run back to get it.

“Dinobot, wait!” she called out, hearing the lift door open and close, the machinery coming to life as the lift lowered. Optimus and Rhinox were on the bridge, neither one of them looking particularly happy about Dinobot just leaving the base like he had, but Rhinox wasn’t thrilled to see Ruby chasing after him. As she rushed to open the overhead doors the engineer grabbed her wrist to stop her. “Let me go, Rhinox.”

“Rattrap just reported that he and Dinobot had a verbal confrontation and I think Dinobot just wants to be left alone to think,” he told her calmly.

Snapping her wrist out of his grip she tightened both of her hands into fists, the strap squeaking in protest of the abuse. “I heard it and I’m going with Dinobot.”

“No.”

Even Optimus was surprised by the rather dark look Ruby gave Rhinox. “The day you become my grand-sparker is the day _you_ can order me around.” Her fist slammed the button the next moment as she still stared up at the much taller bot. Suddenly she was transformed and flying out of it before the doors had opened completely.

Not much made the Maximal engineer mad, at least not much that he would openly show, but this was one of them. Apparently he spoils Ruby a bit too much as she grows up. It was Optimus sighing at the open hatch that drew his attention back to the room.

“That’s one fire-cracker you’ve got there,” Primal stated quietly as the overhead doors shut back into place, “but she had that twitch you mentioned.”

“You think something’s going to happen?” Rhinox asked, calming down a bit.

“Isn’t it always something?” Optimus asked as he waved a hand to the screen that still held the data points from earlier in the day.

* * *

Ruby had forgotten how fast Dinobot could actually run in his beast mode, having gotten so use to him keeping his pace to her own. High in the sky she was searching the area below, looking for a predator that blended in too well with his surroundings and the danger that hunted him. It was as she was flying over a herd of gazelle that she spotted her intended target, paused on an over looking ridge. Careful not to disturb the natural creatures of the area, since they were calm in Dinobot’s presence already, Ruby landed some distance away and ran up to her friend.

The saurian based fighter spotted her in the bright sky and moved purposefully closer to her as she climbed up onto one of the nearby rocks, throwing the piece of cyber-webbing he had found to the side. “What are you doing here?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” she replied powerfully as she transformed. “I’m following you.”

“You shouldn’t be here,” he told her quietly, turning around before he began to slowly walk away. “You should be focused on your mission.”

“Dinobot,” Ruby whispered.

He heard how tight her voice was; the pain that threaded through it, the tears. Turning to face her again he took in the tiny femme before him, how she stood her ground and yet look absolutely terrified. In all the time they had spent together, even when they faced down the danger in the cave, she had never looked so… vulnerable. As he made his way back to her, Dinobot transformed himself into his robot mode before he stopped before her. Taking in the strip that crossed her torso his mind recalled the most terrifying images he had in his databanks: the memories of her damaged form in Primal’s arms from the last battle she fought, the one where Megatron had decided that he was done toying with the tiny Maximal.

“You have no guarantee that you will fight him this day,” he whispered, close enough to lift the strap off of her slightly with a claw as he looked it over.

“Today… history hangs in a delicate balance.” She was struggling with not blurting everything out. “I know _he_ will be there to try to stop his loss.”

Looking back up into her optics, Dinobot could only frown at the faint glowing blue there. There was something more that she wasn’t saying. “Tell me, Ruby,” he pleaded gently with a soft snarl, “was Tigatron and Airazor’s fate what truly what had happened?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “The Vok took them originally. They never got a warning, never got a chance to fight back.”

“And you tried to stop it from happening? Is that why you were at the valley?” When she could only nod, closing her optics in the process which sent two tiny trails of Energon down her cheeks. Dinobot snarled softly as he gently brushed one of the tears away with his thumb. “Megatron was there, too. He tried to prevent the same thing from happening.”

“I don’t think he would have allowed them to live past that day.” Ruby opened her optics again, looking up into his own.

“No, he wouldn’t have risked that,” Dinobot agreed. “Tell me, Ruby. Tell me what’s breaking your spark?”

Fresh Energon welled into her optics, “I can’t.”

“Please.”

A shuttering intake of air into her cooling system did a poor job in steadying her nerves, but as she was about to speak the truth their comm-links crackled to life, the caller sounding panicked.

“ _Cheetor to anybody! Come in!”_

Snarling in agitation Dinobot activated his communicator. “This is Dinobot. Speak feline!”

“ _I’m teaching a solo lesson to Megatron and Rampage. Trouble is they’re slow learners and…,”_ Cheetor had been cut off as he had been hit.

“Cheeteor! Are you injured?” He might have been given the cold shoulder by the Maximals as of late, but they were still his comrades and he was concerned for their well being.

“ _Yeah, I’ll survive. But somebody’s gotta follow up on Megatron, find out what he’s up to.”_

Dinobot started to march back towards the pack of gazelles just over the ridge. “Fear not. Someone most assuredly will.”

Ruby hopped off of her rock and ran after the warrior. “Dinobot,” she squeaked out as she reached for him. When he turned to face her, she stumbled to a halt. “Come what may, I love you.”

The way he just stared at her for too long made her afraid of what she had said. It was a huge chance that he didn’t reciprocate the feelings, only using her, befriending her for her knowledge of the future, so she was naturally fearful when he just marched up to her, but instead of telling her that he did not feel the same Dinobot gently cupped her cheek, turned her face towards his, and kissed her gently on the lips.

She was blinking her optics clear as Dinobot pulled away. “And I you. Go fight your battle Ruby, be victorious.”

“I promise I’ll be at the valley as soon as I can.” She had to win and she couldn’t waste time in doing so. _I can’t let you die tonight. I won’t let you die tonight!_

Dinobot turned to focus on the gazelles again as Ruby transformed and took to the air. He had found plenty of evidence that Tarantulas was nearby. If anyone knew anything about what was going on in Megatron’s fold, it would be the spider.

* * *

Between his discovery that morning and Ruby’s rush after Dinobot that afternoon, Rhinox felt rather helpless. Sure there was plenty to keep him occupied in preparation of any attack Megatron would make upon them, but his processor was far from the chance to go home. Ruby very rarely acted out of anger since he had known her here, the engineer always thought that she did a remarkable job in keeping her emotions as in check as her mission. True, they were all still a bit raw over the loss of Tigatron and Airazor, but Ruby’s actions spoke of more and recalling what Optimus had told him the night after she and Dinobot returned the Golden Disk to Megatron there was no doubt now what was driving her.

“You would know better than I about him, wouldn’t you my little one?” Rhinox whispered as he stepped into her room. Sunlight was slowly fading from the window as the sun began its decent on the other side of the ship, but it illuminated something. Frowning, Rhinox stopped at her desk and picked up the lone dart that caught the last dim glimmers of light. He recalled her working on them earlier but he grew curious as to the fluid that was inside, the glowing swirl of dark blues and greens making him wonder exactly what she had done with the information he had given her the night before. He made his way back to the bridge, Rhinox having walked in at the tail end of Cheetor’s report to Optimus before the scout hit the CR chamber for a quick set of repairs.

“…and Dinobot said that he’d keep an eye on things.”

“Did he mention Ruby being with him?” Primal asked as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Cheetor shook his head, “Not a word, Big Bot, and she never replied to the call.”

Rubbing his chin thoughtfully, Optimus nodded. “Get yourself repaired. We’ll head that direction as soon as you’re done.” As his scout nodded and followed orders, the Maximal leader turned his attention to his closest friend.

Rhinox had already sat himself down at his usual station, the needle tipped projectile he had carried in bobbing gently in the scanning system beside him as he had the computer run its program over its contents.

“Analysis complete,” the monotone voice said as it gave a read out. “Substance matches blend reproduced eighteen mega-cycles prior.”

Optimus raised an optic ridge at the read out. “She made a rather sizable batch of it, but why?”

“This is an endgame move,” Rhinox whispered.

Turning to the station beside them, Primal opened all channels of communication. “Rattrap, Silverbolt, get to the bridge now.”

“ _Dinobot to Optimus Primal!”_

Optimus walked over to the command table and with a press of a few buttons had the computer tracking the transmission so they would have a precise location in case they had moved from Cheetor’s last reported sighting. “Optimus here. What is it, Dinobot?”

A pained groan echoed through the transmission. _“Code red. Situation extreme!”_

Silverbolt and Rattrap rushed onto the bridge, Cheetor out of the CR chamber, and Rhinox getting up to his feet as Dinobot filled Primal in on the situation. Megatron had the Golden Disk with him and had begun to attack the valley in an attempt to wipe out the human race. “We’ll be there as soon as we can. In the meantime fall back and wait for us.” Turning away from the table to issue orders, Primal jerked back in surprise at Dinobot’s reply.

“ _Negative!”_ was all they heard before the communications broke up.

“Let’s move!” Primal ordered. The overhead doors opened up, giving access for Primal, Silverbolt, and Cheetor to fly through as Rattrap and Rhinox took the lift. All five pushed themselves as hard as they could, but in the pit of their Energon pumps knew that something was wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own the show. Thanks for reading!


	12. Code of Hero : Part 2

Ruby had to go higher above the clouds to avoid the incoming Predacon forces, biting off a curse as she realized where they were headed. She was desperately running out of time! She had been circling the area since she left Dinobot’s side and had yet to see the tarnished Megatron anywhere on the rocks below. Where was that snake with wings hiding?

The sun had actually begun to set, like the lights dimming before a show. Even the surrounding landscape hushed as if waiting for the first note of the macabre opera to sound. The silence was pierced by the screams of the natives that had called the valley home, but soon became a symphony as the instruments of war joined in. Despite how far away, how high above the valley Ruby was, it all echoed painfully in her audio receptors.

* * *

Dinobot weighed everything before himself as he looked down at the chaos in the valley below. He knew deep down that the Maximals would not reach the valley before Megatron had decimated it, its inhabitants lifeless on the rocky floor. “The question that had once haunted my being has been answered. The future is not fixed. My choices are my own, and yet, how ironic, for I now find that I have no choice at all.”

He understood her tears now, why she was struggling so hard around him earlier to keep from speaking. She knew all of what happened this night; the survival of the human race was up to him and him alone. He would follow the advice she gave him, he will follow his honor.

“I am a warrior,” he spoke, his voice soft with resignation of his fate as he pulled out his blade. “Let the battle be joined.”

* * *

She was fighting herself to not just fly to the valley to help Dinobot, but she knew that Megatron, her Megatron, would most likely risk everything to keep Dinobot from succeeding and she had to stop the tyrant before he got near the valley. Looking past the clouds below her Ruby’s focus sharpened as she saw a dark shadow crawling quickly along the ground. Knowing it was her target; she dove downward and angled her beast body to gain as much speed as she could before she had to shut of her jets to keep stealth on her side.

The closer it seemed that she came to her target the more she noticed that his rushed gate around the base of the recently damaged mountain had a severe limp to it. Apparently the damage she had given him in their last fight had yet to be completely repaired or it was beyond his system’s ability to heal. In the last few meters of her flight Ruby transformed into her robot mode, grabbed a couple of the projectiles, and spread her arms and legs out some to create drag to slow her down before she made impact.

Megatron was rushing towards the valley, the sound of the firefight his cue that Dinobot would soon be extremely damaged and near the end of his life. He could hide along the ridge away from himself and take out Dinobot without a hitch. Ruby was most likely already in the valley; hoping to save the one she so foolishly fell in love with, trying to change the future in her favor. The foolish winged pest would soon die beside him.

Ruby slammed into Megatron’s neck as he leapt up a bit to get a bit of wind under his wings to speed up his rush, sending them both crashing into the rocky ground. It wasn’t the sudden appearance of the tiny Maximal, nor the tumbling along the ground that caused the most pain; it was whatever she had jabbed into his neck that had sent a jolting fire through his form, paralyzing several systems in the process. There was a bit of satisfaction that he had fallen in the direction that at least caught the femme under his form, her shout of pain music to his audio receptors.

Ruby managed to jab two of the darts just at the base of his head before he crashed, but had not been able to leap free as he fell, trapping her right leg between the rocky ground and his neck. With a groan she was able to get to her feet, though most of her weight was supported with her left leg as she turned to face her opponent.

Megatron managed to stumble to his four feet, though his movements were sluggish and weak as he focused on her. “Do you really think that you will win tonight, Maximal?”

“I don’t have to win,” Ruby replied darkly, pulling another dart free from the strap that crossed her torso. “I just have to stop you.”

Megatron roared, slamming his left claw down on top of her. The rocks shattered below her, but Ruby jabbed the dart into the side of his claw as he grabbed her, sending a fresh shock of pain through his arm as the venom began to paralyze the systems there. With an angry growl, Megatron grabbed Ruby in his maw, lifted his head high into the air and flung her down to the rocks with as much force as he could muster, over and over again.

* * *

Megatron looked away from the primitive he had secured and set aside while Quickstrike kept Dinobot busy. The ground was shaking beneath his feet, but it was not from the fighting. In the distance, just past the mountain he had tested his theory on, Megatron heard the roar of a mighty beast and the formation of a dark heavy cloud streaked with fire. Adjusting his optic sensors on the disturbance, the Transmetal Predacon leader frowned as he saw the massive shadow that must have been the beast, but the flames skewed his vision. Surely his sensors would have picked up such a creature. Perhaps it was a gift from their alien tormentors?

“First things first,” he gloated, looking down at the captured primate.

* * *

Ruby landed face down in another crater in the mountain side, sending more rocks flying into the air with her violent landing. Fighting the overwhelming feeling of blacking out, she pushed herself up by her arms with a pained groan, shards of red falling free from the temporal device on her torso, but the dismal sight below her made her want to scream. One of the darts that had rested over her temporal device shattered as well from the impact, though fortunately for her gravity was on her side as the cyber-venom went oozing into the rocks. Coughing, Ruby stumbled to her knees despite her body’s protest as she pulled the last dart free. Megatron aimed at her right hand, which held the dart, and fired an ice bolt, making Ruby double over, screaming in pain as she cuddled her frozen hand close to her.

“Poor, poor Ruby. Unable to save your friends, nooo,” Megatron began to gloat. “All your new weapons and you couldn’t defeat me.” A vicious smile twisted his maw, “As I recall, Dinobot looked about as pathetic when I faced him this night as you do now, yeeesss. ”

Half turning to look over her shoulder at him, Ruby let the pain make the dark glare she faced the tyrant with much harsher than she thought was possible, as she slammed her frozen hand into the ground to break the ice, the venom frozen amid the shattered projectile falling among the shards of ice. Slowly she regained her feet as she turned to face Megatron. “As I recall, he defeated you with a _rock_ and a _stick_.”

The venom might have been in small doses, but its purpose was staying true. Megatron did not have much time before it left him unable to function. The thought that rushed into his head made him smile darkly. “Why fight against me, Ruby? Clearly I have underestimated you. Your resourcefulness outshines even Rhinox’s. Fight at my side, rule beside me, and I promise you that your precious Maximals will remain functional.” When she didn’t move he lowered his bestial head to look at her fully, “Starting with Dinobot.”

 _That’s it, yeess,_ he thought as Ruby closed her optics with a ragged breath. _Let your foolish Maximal emotions lead the others to their shallow graves._ Eventually she slowly shifted her way over to him, favoring her right leg most of all, hanging her head in defeat. Megatron was relishing his victory, imagining having her fettered by chains at his side the rest of her life, making her watch as he brought about his perfection for Cybertron. As she reached his side Megatron felt the wash of victory. “You made the right choice, Ruby, yeess.”

“You’re right. I have,” she said quietly, pulling the larger container of cyber-venom out of her subspace. “Check.”

Ruby suddenly slammed it into Megatron’s side. The dragon let out a massive roar of pain as the contents pumped into his frame, quickly grabbing her with the claw at the tip of his tail and flung her away as he reached for the container. With a powerful bound into the air, Megatron took flight after her once he realized the direction he sent her. He couldn’t risk her reaching the valley.

Ruby cried out in pain as she shifted into beast mode, using her jets in attempt to stop her wild tumble, but she was not able to push past the force that was sending her flying from Megatron. She saw the valley coming towards her and aimed herself towards it, but the roar of the angry beast made her realize that the cyber-venom had failed. Shutting her jets off she transformed back into her robot mode, Ruby twisted around as she pulled out her gatling gun and sent a bullet riddled volley punctuated by a few grenades. Megatron dodged and juked around the projectiles heading his way as he built up a fireball in his throat.

* * *

Dinobot was barely able to stand on his own two feet, but he stood firm as he waited for Megatron to show himself. Knowing the Predacon dictator like he did, the noble warrior was certain that Megatron would be there to gloat, despite all of his troops having been soundly defeated. He had already bypassed the stasis lock his systems demanded, the dire warning pushed to the back of his mind as he stood up as straight as he could. He could not afford to let the regret of his choice cause him to hesitate in this inevitable outcome. As he heard the all too familiar heavy footsteps, Dinobot whispered, “Megatron.”

“Hmmm, my ears are burning, yeess,” the pompous Predacon leader, in beast mode, stepped out from behind the huge boulder that he had hidden his wild card behind. “Why, Dinobot! What a delightful surprise! Let’s see, where are we now? I have the Golden Disk. I have the power to change the future,” he listed, lifting a single digit for each point on his bestial hand as he taunted the bot before him, “and the only remaining obstacle in my path to unimaginable glory … is yourself.”

Dinobot struggled to keep his optics on Megatron as the Predacon transformed while he continued his taunt. “Exhausted; abandoned by the femme that you’d given up so much for; damaged beyond recovery; defeated.”

“Not … just … yet,” Dinobot growled as he began to lunge, stopping as he took in Megatron aiming his tail weapon at not him, but to the primitive human the Predacon had bound beside him.

“One more step and its raining bits of early anthropoid,” Megatron threatened.

Dinobot focused on the male as it looked between the two Cybertronians, confusion openly apparent on its face as it was trying to figure out which one was going to do the most harm. It saw the damaged Cybertronian stop at the threat to him, seeing the anger it had towards his captor.

“Oh dear! How positively Maximal of you!” the tyrant continued as he took aim at the traitor before him. “You were weakened before you started, Dinobot; weakened by _compassion_.”

Dinobot dove and rolled, grabbing the sizable branch from the ground before he leapt back up to his feet, slamming it down a few times on Megatron’s weapon and torso before Megatron sent him flying backwards with a powerful punch.

“Oohoho, really Dinobot?” Megatron laughed at the absurdity of the attempt as he brushed off the attack. “A stick, against a Transmetal? I think not.”

Dinobot struggled to get back upright while the Predacon gloated, his mind formulating a plan as he took in his surroundings and recalled one of the many lessons Optimus Primal had taught him.

“ _Final warning. Power failing,”_ his internal computer gave him one last reminder as Dinobot’s body shook with pain as an energon surge danced over it. _“Jeopardy extreme. Repeat, extreme.”_

“Oh please,” Megatron now stood over the struggling warrior as Dinobot struggled to his knees, “Face it, Dinobot. You’re old technology. Obsolete. What can you possibly do?”

Dinobot stared down the charged up tail weaponry for a moment before both he and Megatron’s attention was suddenly drawn over the trees as a huge creature bellowed out in anger, the dark shape powering its way through the night sky, it’s maw lit ominously with fire as it chased after a smaller shape that was aiming a powerful torrent of bullets and explosives its way as both figures headed straight towards the valley. Dinobot instantly recognized Ruby’s weapon and knew that the creature hunting her down was the dragon form of the Predacon before him. With one final growl, Dinobot looked back at the Megatron before him and answered his final question. “Improvise.”

With all the force he could muster, Dinobot slammed the end of the branch he held onto the pointed rock beside him, leapt back to his feet and swung the war hammer down on his foe. Megatron, partially distracted by the beast he had noticed earlier, looked back at Dinobot in surprise as the Maximal hit him with his weapon, sending him flying backwards as it dislodged the Golden Disk. Dinobot grabbed the disk as it flipped through the air, aimed, and then twisted his body, sending it flying skyward towards the dragon.

* * *

Ruby’s gatling gun seized up as she ran out of ammo and could only watch as Megatron let loose his flaming projectile straight at her. Time seemed to slow down at it approached, but the slight glint of something slicing through the air right next to her head drew her attention away from her fiery demise. She barely caught sight of the Golden Disk, but recognized it in that split nano-click before it hit the fireball, causing it to detonate before it reached her and was destroyed.

The blast added to her speed, sending her crashing to the ground, the boulder between Megatron and Dinobot suddenly stopping her painfully. Dinobot stumbled a couple of steps toward her, holding his side. She looked about as bad as he was feeling, but he couldn’t help but smile at the look of relief on her face, nor could he miss the open look of affection in her optics as she rolled to her side, despite the pain she was in. He was beginning to weaken the closer he got, but suddenly looked up as a bright purple streak of energy came from the other side of the rock, striking him in the torso and sending him flying backwards.

Ruby screamed in horror, too busy watching Dinobot’s wild tumble to neither hear both Megatron’s yelling in anger about the destruction of the disk, the younger one firing up at the dragon which made the older one retreat, nor did she notice the Predacon tyrant stop his way over to her, now focusing his anger on his only remaining target. It was the snap of a twig behind her that made her slowly turn around and look up at the towering Predacon before Megatron slammed his foot down on her torso, pinning her to the ground while he aimed his powered up tail weaponry point blank in her face. “You’ll pay for that, Ruby. You and that creature will pay dearly.”

“You won’t win, Megatron,” she gasped out. “You can’t win the Beast Wars.”

“Pity you won’t be around to make sure,” he replied darkly.

It was the scream of an angry animal that preceded the green laser shot to Megatron’s torso, practically throwing the Predacon away from the tiny Maximal he had pinned to the ground. Ruby looked over from the direction it had come from only to see Dinobot collapse back to the ground.

She somehow made it to his side, though if asked later on she most likely would not recall how. Sitting on his left, Ruby struggled with tears as she called out to him, shaking Dinobot’s form gently in an attempt to rouse him. “Dinobot, please … please don’t leave me. I need you. Please, I can’t do this without you.” In a panic she reached into her temporal unit and began to pull out wires when a weak voice reached her audio sensors.

“Ruby… stop.”

Blinking his optics open he tried to smile for his damaged guardian angel, knowing that she succeeded with her own battle. “You… knew…” Ruby nodded her head, knowing her vocal unit was too weak to reply. When he reached up to her she took his hand in both of her own and pressed her face into it. “You knew my fate… and still loved me.”

“It’s Rattrap’s fault,” Ruby admitted, blinking her optics open she focused gently on his own. “I’ve had a crush on you from all the stories he would tell me. I fell in love _with_ you as I got to know you for myself.”

“It’s about … time that rodent … did something … right …” Dinobot smiled more as she gave a teary chuckle.

Neither one looked away as the sound of their comrades descended around them and the yell of a frustrated Megatron bellowing about his defeat before retreating back to his base. Optimus Primal landed heavily beside them, having chased Megatron off with hard ordinance, before Rattrap’s motor proceeding him as he came upon the pair. In a rush the infiltrator transformed, took in his damaged friend with a gasp of shock, and hung his head in shame. He had driven Dinobot to do this.

Rhinox was the next to land in the valley, rushing over to the others and began to run his scans. Rattrap managed to make it to Dinobot’s other side and took his hand in his own. Ruby didn’t even look up at them, but kept her focus on Dinobot as she held his hand to her cheek. Above them all Silverbolt and Cheetor began to douse the flames, saving what was left of the valley and its inhabitants, before they too joined their friends at Dinobot’s side.

“There’s … there’s gotta be something we can do,” Cheetor pleaded quietly, looking at the others in hope that any of the others might have a suggestion.

“He’s too far gone, even for stasis lock,” Rhinox admitted painfully.

Dinobot managed to turn his head away from the tiny femme to look at the others. When his focus settled on Primal, the Maximal leader shared the news he knew Dinobot needed to hear. “Well fought my friend. You save the valley. You saved the lives of those who live here, and of those who are still to come.”

Dinobot had relaxed back at the good news that his sacrifice allotted them. “Then …” he turned to look back at Ruby, “I only have … one regret."

There was something Rattrap had to tell him before his best friend passed, breaking the painful silence to do so. “Like I said, ye’re just a blasted slag spoutin’ saurian, but, uh,” he said, gripping Dinobot’s hand warmly in both of his own, “it’s nice ta know where ya stand.”

“Upwind of you, for preference, Vermin,” Dinobot snarled quietly, both he and Rattrap sharing a smile at Dinobot managing to get the last dig. With his last, the mighty warrior gave his final request to all those present. “Tell my tale to those who ask. Tell it truly, the ill deeds … along with the good,” he looked back at Ruby, “and let me be judged accordingly.” Resting his head back on the ground, Dinobot whispered, “The rest … is silence.”

As his body shut down and released his spark, the others struggled with their emotions. Rattrap was the first to salute his friend, the others joining in their respect. Ruby could only watch with tear filled optics as Dinobt’s spark floated up above them, almost as if it was hesitating to leave.

“He lived a warrior and died a hero,” Primal said with a sad pride in his voice. “Let his spark join the Matrix with the greatest of Cybertron.” After the eulogy Dinobot’s spark rush skyward, heading home after long last in search of a well deserved rest.

It was a long moment of quiet before Ruby stumbled to her feet, her damaged form more shuffling than making full steps as she headed in the direction that the Predacon dictator had fled. Rattrap rushed in front of her, his hands up in hopes to stop her.

“Where ya goin’? Ye’re barely functional yerself.”

“I’m ending this tonight,” she got out tightly, her frame shaking in a mix of her loss and pain. “I’m going to kill Megatron and end the Beast Wars tonight.”

“Absolutely not,” Primal ordered firmly.

Ruby only titled her head a bit to the side that Optimus’ voice came from behind her before she moved around Rattrap. Rhinox knew all of her damage when he had scanned them both earlier, but surely she knew this was suicide.

“Computer, activate repair mode and stasis lock on unit Ruby, medical override,” the engineer ordered.

“No!” she ground out as she struggled against her body unwillingly changing around her. “He has to pay … This has to stop. I can’t lose you all again.” The others were rather surprised she had gotten a few more steps away before the command won out, Ruby collapsing to the ground in beast mode.

In the silence of the valley, Primal looked back down at the body of their friend before he began to give orders. They needed to get back to the Axalon to give Dinobot a proper funeral. “Cheetor, Rattrap, Rhinox, let's carry him home. Silverbolt, carry Ruby.”

* * *

It took every last ounce of strength he had, but Megatron managed to find yet another cave to hide himself in before his body shut down completely. Between the damage he sustained in their previous battle, which had been beyond his body’s ability to repair on its own, and the cyber-venom cocktail Ruby managed to pump into his system followed by hot a round of bullet chasers, the tarnished dragon was rather amazed that he was still functional.

He was also fuming over the loss of the Golden Disk, this time his own attack destroying the prize instead of it being Dinobot’s last feat, though the traitor no doubt gave his last protecting Ruby from his younger self, which means that the Maximals still lose him this day. Good, one less Maximal to deal with.

As Megatron crashed onto the hard rocks, he ground out, “Computer, begin repairs.” When his body began to shut down for what little repairs it could accomplish, he let his mind focus back into the events to come and glean through the ruffling in his head to find out exactly how much damage he had done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own the show. Thanks for reading.
> 
> I will admit I cried when I first watched this episode and several times afterwards. After a while I was fine watching it until I began writing this. These last two chapters took me a while because I had to keep stopping to collect myself or focus on something else to stop crying.


	13. Adjournment

It took promising to not move from the rock she sat on, but it allowed Ruby to attend Dinobot’s funeral. One last chance to say good-bye before his mortal coil had been dismembered atom by atom. Afterwards she was forced into repairs, the first of which was her temporal unit, though despite Rhinox’s warnings she opted to stay online during the procedure. It did hurt, but given all of the other damage she sustained she honestly felt very little. The CR chamber had shut her down to focus on her repairs, so when she awoke Ruby found herself pain free, physically at least. The nightmares she had during her repair cycle still pounded her processor.

Stepping out of the chamber, Ruby did not make optic contact with anyone in the room. Rhinox and Optimus had been focusing on the diagram that floated above the command table in the center of the room, Rattrap was at the sensor station, while Cheetor and Silverbolt were preparing to head off of the ship.

“Heya, Ruby,” Cheetor greeted her quietly.

Ruby paused, having tried to retreat down the hallway to escape being the focus of the room, and looked at the young scout as he stood beside the lift. She turned from the pair beside her when they all heard Rattrap call out to her.

“Ruby,” the infiltrator became the center of attention as he gathered up the courage to speak as he slowly shifted forward. “For, eh, what its worth, I’m, ah… sorry.”

“You’re… sorry?” she asked weakly. Her whole body began shaking, her hands clenched tightly at her sides as she began to rapidly intake air into her cooling system, Energon tears beginning to fall from her optics. “You’re sorry? How dare you,” she fully faced the other rodent now. “How dare you!”

Cheetor and Silverbolt each grabbed an arm as she began to march over towards Rattrap, both rather surprised at the fact that she was able to drag them a bit before they were able to stop her. Rattrap, it appeared, was ready for the assault he was about to receive.

“This is all _your_ fault,” she screamed, as she struggled against the hold Silverbolt and Cheetor had on her arms. “You'd go on and on about how _honorable_ he was. Compare every other bot that I considered a relationship with to _him_ and found them lacking. After all this time you just couldn’t learn to keep your mouth _shut_. _This_ whole mess is your fault!”

Realizing exactly what she was saying Rhinox moved to grab a hold of Ruby, but Optimus had been closer. It was only after Primal had a hold of her before Cheetor and Silverbolt let her go. Their commander wrapped his arms around her snugly, holding her close as she began to cry and once in a while pound her fist onto his torso plating. In her emotional state she had not realized that she jeopardized her mission. As Optimus began to walk her to her room, Rhinox was hoping that the others had not caught the slip-up.

* * *

The days passed slowly despite all the busy work they had in preparation for the inevitable attack that Megatron would visit upon them at any moment. Each had their own task, which helped pass the time, but it still left plenty of free time to try and not focus on what had happened recently, especially during the night.

Silverbolt was at the monitor station, watching the screen as the scanners did their latest sweep around the Axalon and the surrounding area. There was a single blip, but she had been sitting at that one spot since after she finished her assigned project that day. The Fuzor frowned as Sentinel located Ruby again. He felt for her knowing that if something ever happened to Black Arachnia he would feel just as lost, if not more so. The sound of footsteps drew his attention into the room behind him, so Silverbolt turned his chair to greet his replacement. “Greetings, Rattrap.”

“Hey, Bolt,” the rodent replied as he focused on the screen behind his friend. “She still out dere?”

“It was their place, Rattrap,” Silverbolt glanced at the screen as well. “It is where her spark feels the closest to his.”

“It’s just… sometin’ ain’t right,” the Transmetal rodent replied as he still focused on the screen. “Dat night didn’t feel right.”

“You mean the shadows and fire around the mountain?” Silverbolt asked.

“I was wondering if you two noticed it, too,” a voice stated quietly behind the pair, making them twist quickly around to focus on its owner. Cheetor stood behind them, holding his hands together in front of him as he stepped closer. “I had asked Optimus about it, but Big Bot just said that we needed to focus on getting to the valley.”

“I, too, recall Optimus’ avoidance of your inquiry, Cheetor.” Silverbolt was now to his feet, the three of them close together to whisper, despite being the only ones on the bridge at that moment.

“Do you think that Optimus is keeping something from us?” Cheetor asked, recalling what they had learned the day they found Rampage’s stasis pod.

“I dunno, Pussycat, but if he is … I don’t think he’s de only one,” Rattrap mumbled, glancing back at the screen as he thought over some very strange things. Like how a certain little Maximal always seemed to be at the strangest places at the oddest times. But that didn’t matter to him right now. He somehow had to make this up to Ruby, though Rattrap had no idea where to start.

* * *

He could hear it calling to him. Peace. Rest. A warrior’s welcome after the long, honorable battle. But he couldn’t go, not yet. Something was keeping him tethered back to where he fell, something more powerful than the promise of paradise. Turning away from his earned rest, he followed the force that was pulling him back.

It was not to the place where he had fallen. Nor to the funeral pyre that now stood silently in the night. He was lead to a familiar place, one that was saturated in all the good he knew he had chosen to fight with the Maximals for, but it was not the location that drew him. It was the person that was there.

In the dark of the night, the moon hidden away in this part of its cycle, sat a lone figure. He could feel her sorrow; it soaked into his core as if it was his own, while she struggled with herself against crying all over again. There was nothing more in the universe that he wished at that moment except to console her in some way. He could not rest knowing how much pain she was in.

Ruby struggled to control the tears; glad the others were leaving her alone as long as she stayed within range of Sentinel. It was as she felt someone come up behind her before she stood up and turned to face them. About to snap at Rattrap for bothering her again, she stopped short at the spark that floated before her. It just bobbed there as she slowly reached for it, not daring to speak for fear of scaring it away. When it suddenly rushed towards her, Ruby instinctively stepped back, but as the spark touched the red half orb on her torso it sent a surge through her systems that knocked her offline.

When she awoke, she found herself lying on the bunk in Dinobot’s old quarters. Looking around the room, slowly taking everything in, she tried to figure out exactly what had happened. Maybe her visiting the overlook and the floating spark was simply a dream.

The former Predacon kept his decorations sparse, the weapons hanging on the wall were more function than décor, but the skin of the clone hung as a trophy behind the desk. She focused on the rack of swords that hung on the wall beside the bed, all honed and waiting to be utilized in battle. Ruby gained her feet and walked over to the display, pulling one free from its place and held the sizable blade up in the dim light as it began to spin slowly.

“You and I will avenge him, I promise you,” she whispered to the blade before placing in her subspace pocket.

Firming herself for the events to come, Ruby came to the one solid conclusion. If she was to have any hope in saving their future, she would have to kill Megatron, the current leader of the Predacons, here in the past.

* * *

As he rested in his personal CR Tank, Megatron frowned at the information that he had up on the huge screen before him. Every little bit of data he and his troops had collected on Ruby scrolled slowly across his screen. There had to have been something he missed, something very important as to _why_ she was fighting the huge mysterious creature that night instead of fighting at Dinobot’s side. Also, it would give him some clue as to what exactly that creature was and where he could find it. If it was alien in origin, then he would take control of it just like he had done with the seed pod ship.

His optics focused on the first file on her as it scrolled past. “Computer, stop file scan. Bring up file 2-6-1-7-3.”

“Acknowledged,” the Predacon computer replied. The file filled the screen the next moment, each line scrolling up from the bottom of the screen.

“Now that is an intriguing thought, yeess,” Megatron mumbled as he picked up his rubber ducky and slowly petted it from the head down its back. “Our little enigma of a Maximal did arrive on a Predacon ship, didn’t she? Perhaps she did not arrive alone after all. Computer, begin a planet wide search for any Cybertronian energy signatures not currently listed in your database.” After the computer beeped its affirmation, Megatron held up his duck in front of his face. “We will find our new friend, yeess, and both welcome him into my army and make him pay for his foolishness in destroying my hard earned prize.”

* * *

The story of Transmutate often left Ruby puzzled and sad the few times that Silverbolt actually shared it with her. Having watched what she had been able to play out, Ruby too shared his opinion about the loss of an innocent that had, for a time, united two foes in mourning. Neither side truly understood the being that had been in their company for such a brief amount of time. Even though Transmutate had been damaged, she was still Cybertronian. She was a life that had started out like any of their own only to be tragically cut short in her desperate attempt to bring peace between the two that had befriended her.

Rampage remained by the pile of stones that he and Silverbolt had placed on the spot that Transmutate last stood alive, staring intently down at it as the moon slowly moved overhead. The Maximals had given the fallen Cybertronian a proper funeral, all on edge the whole time while Rampage stood nearby, but he made no move to either attack or speak to them. Naturally with him staying so close to the Axalon they kept their defenses raised to their highest, but as the night progressed, Rampage made no attempt to attack.

Ruby had worked on the figure most of the day since what little bit of work on the defense upgrades she had been given to do had been completed without incident. Rhinox still insisted that she remain near the base for the time being due to her recent injuries, but she knew they were trying to keep her from outright attacking Megatron. That was fine; she didn’t have any fight in her at the moment to face the Predacon tyrant.

With the last bit of paint on the statuette Ruby gained her feet, took the project in hand, and exited the ship. Cheetor just looked at her, about to speak until he saw what she carried and adjusted Sentinel accordingly.

Rampage didn’t bother to look up as he heard footsteps crunching the rocky ground behind him. By the sound, the person was small, light, and by the slow gate, not in a hurry to arrive. The being simply stopped beside him and just stood there quiet for the longest time.

“Is this how you feel, my sweet?” Rampage’s voice cut through the dark. “This empty feeling that feels like it is about to swallow you up any nano-click?”

“It’s a pain you’ve left many a Maximal feeling in the wake of your actions,” Ruby replied silently.

“Hrmmm,” he simply replied as he thought over her words. Soon his thoughts were interrupted by something being placed on the pile of stones before him. The details were exquisite, matching the bot he had been his one and only friend. Gently taking the statuette of Transmutate in his hands, Rampage let the moonlight cast it in a lovely glow. “Are you enjoying my pain or did you simply wish to cheer me up? To be honest, I really don’t feel like playing with you tonight, my toy.”

“The war will continue come the dawn, and things will be close to how they were before,” the tiny femme whispered quietly.

When Rampage finally looked in her direction, he was rather disturbed by the fact that she had simply vanished. A quick scan of the sky with his optics showed her flying back towards her ship, but the simple realization that she could sneak around him was rather impressive. With a slow nod, he looked back down at the statuette in his hands before placing it in his subspace pocket, transforming into his vehicle mode, and began the slow roll back to the Darkside. His room was barren, but the one shelf in there would be the perfect resting place for his treasure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own the show. Thank you for reading.


	14. The Agenda : Part 1

With a disgruntled sigh, Waspinator continued his late night flight. He had no idea what he had ever done in his life to have become the Predacon whipping-boy, but surely it wasn’t bad enough to deserve all this poor treatment. Not only had he been crushed, shredded, scrapped, zapped, cubed, and possessed, but he sincerely doubted that he still had any of his original parts. The Maximal rat probably had most of them anyways.

“Why univerze hate Wazzpinator?” the giant wasp whined. “Maximalz beat up on Wazzpinator. Predaconz beat up on Wazzpinator. Planet beat up on Wazzpinator. Alienz beat up on Wazzpinator. When Wazzpinator get vacation?”

Coming up to the coordinates that Megatron had given him, the Predacon flyer swept out of the sky in a playful attempt to better his mood. As the mouth of the cave came into view through the low lying clouds Waspinator gulped, frightened by the ominous sight before him, before he transformed and landed with a heavy thud. Leary of any creature suddenly leaping out to chew his face off, he carefully approached the opening.

“Why Wazzpinator always get zlag azzinmentz?” he whimpered.

“Because,” a dark, angry voice growled, punctuated by heavy thuds that not only echoed from the mouth of the cave, but shook the ground the fearful Predacon stood on, “you’re the only one that I can trust to survive them.”

Waspinator’s jaw dropped as the huge head followed by the elongated neck that supported it came out of the cave, the angry growl of the creature making him almost shake himself apart. “Wazzpinator not want to die.”

“Oh, trust me, Waspinator,” Megatron dipped his head down to look at his minion, “out of all of my troops you are the only one, aside from myself naturally, to survive the Beast Wars.” Watching as the pliable Predacon seemed to gain a glimmer of hope for his future, the dragon smiled victoriously. “Now listen up, and if you prove yourself more valuable to me than you already are, then I will make sure that you have a very important place at my side, yeess.”

* * *

The main issue with the drone mentality, at least according to any sentient being, was the mundane routine that they fell into. Taking the time to just watch and note the time each patrol passed in certain areas helped Rhinox formulate his plans on which areas to hit when for the best opportunity to scavenge supplies. The only wild card thrown in there was his sizable friend. He had only seen the large black base coated bot as it patrolled randomly in the area and twice Rhinox had thought it had spotted him, his foe stopping to scan directly where the Maximal had been hiding only to move on after a few cycles.

The patrols from the Vehicon drones actually had been growing infrequent, much to Rhinox’s surprise, the gap timing between each sweep growing larger each solar-cycle by twenty nano-clicks until it was roughly a mega-cycle between one patrol to the next. A less experienced bot would have thought that the enemy was only relaxing their attention to the matter at hand, since he had not, to his knowledge, been spotted since the warehouse ambush. But there were several reasons that Rhinox had lived as long as he had; one of the many was that he was fortunate to have survive such foolishness when he was younger. He will not relax his guard until Ruby had completed her mission.

There was much Rhinox had learned in his time in the Beast Wars, but the most important one was that he should never underestimate Megatron, or the fact that the tyrant always was three moves ahead of the game.

* * *

Megatron frowned down at the piece of Golden Disk that Waspinator had come back with and placed in his clutches. The Predacon leader had sent the expendable bait to investigate the energy signature that near mimicked his own, weary of finding some sort of trap at that location set up by the brutal aliens that have seen fit to torment them all. Instead the insect comes back after three whole solar cycles with a fragment of the little trinket that had started this whole war in the first place. The jagged piece with a slight melt to its edges barely managed to survive the blast that creature had given it.

There was also the fantastical tale that Waspinator told to go with the piece, that the signature was a visitor from the future and that he had followed Ruby back in time to keep the Maximals from winning the Beast Wars, that the little time traveling rodent had come back in an attempt to make sure that Megatron was not victorious in his rule. The being that Waspinator apparently spoke with had also given him orders to relay the message to Megatron that Ruby had to be destroyed. There was also the air of importance that the flyer seemed to be holding his head up with. Apparently this being had played the wasp well, feeding him a false hope in order to make sure that his commands were obeyed. Megatron had to make sure that he did not fall for such trickery himself.

“This does answer quite a few of my questions, yeess,” Megatron mumbled as he placed the fragment away on his person, “but it only leads to more. If our little flying rodent is indeed from the future, then we must make sure that she does not fix it.”

* * *

Just over two complete lunar cycles after the loss of Dinobot the Maximals had gathered onto the bridge of the Axalon after a long day of uneventful patrols, though this day was one they had looked forward to for the longest time. Rhinox had stayed up all the night before and well into the following day working on his figures, Ruby by his side manning the scanning station while he worked. All waited on baited breath for him to speak, none daring to break the silence. Then finally …

“The transwarp explosion wave-front should be moving into Cybertronian space now. They’ll be detecting it within a few cycles.” Rhinox turned away from his station to look at Rattrap, who was the closest, “This is it. We’re going home.”

Ruby watched silently as the other’s celebrated, only cracking a slight smile at their joy, especially her grand-sparker’s curled little paper party horn, as she twisted around the little clicking noise-maker in her hand. The others thought it was due to their most recent loss, but the truth was much darker than they could imagine at the moment. A glance over at Silverbolt, who currently had Rattrap hanging onto him, showed that she wasn’t the only one not overcome with joy about the news.

“Cybertron,” the Fuzor contemplated for a moment. “The home I have never known.”

“Oooo! You are going to love it!” Rattrap exclaimed. “I know dis little place where you can get Dirty Mech-fluid mixed with just a _touch_ of Radium,” he laughed a bit at the fond memories. “It’ll take yer head right off! Not only dat … eh …” the rodent trailed off as he suddenly remembered there were youngin’s in the room, glancing back to actually see that he had Cheetor’s rapt attention and Ruby resting her chin on her arm, which was propped up on the console between her and Rhinox, with just one eye ridge raised as she looked over at him. Clearing his throat he leaned closer to Silverbolt to finish his deal breaker in a badly concealed whisper that they still could hear.

As Silverbolt refused as politely as he could attempt at the moment before he walked off, Rhinox heard Ruby mumble behind him, “This coming from the bot that swore to disown me if he ever caught me in a place like that.”

Turning to face her, the engineer looked down at her with her chin still propped up on her hand. “What did you say?”

Ruby only looked up at him with her optics, giving a helpless shrug with her shoulders. “Sorry, just remembering an overprotective uncle of mine.”

Their attention turned to Cheetor, who began to give Rattrap an alternative celebration venue, “Aw, forget him, Big R. You and I can go to the Six Lasers over Cybertron Amusement Park. There’s the Space Slide, and the Galaxy Coaster, and the-“

“Kid!” Rattrap held up his hand, pausing for a moment to actually consider the option, “don’t make hurt’cha.”

With a sigh, Ruby got up to her feet and began to walk towards the lift, giving Cheetor a pat on the shoulder as she passed. Optimus turned to watch her, frowning a bit, “Where are you going?”

“Don’t feel right leaving one of us alone on patrol right now, so I’m going with Silverbolt,”she replied.

Nodding, her commander didn’t directly reply to the veiled remorse in her tone. Dinobot had stormed out of the base by himself and the worst they could imagine happened. Was Silverbolt in danger as well?

As they watched her exit via the lift, Rattrap crossed his arms over his torso. “Somethin’ fishy is goin’ on with dat femme.”

“What do you mean?” Optimus asked, turning his attention back to his second-in-command.

“I mean all de odd damage she’s gotten’ from not only bein’ around were we lost three of our friends, but other _important_ events, dat’s what.”

Rhinox frowned, sharing a look with Optimus, which did not escape Rattrap or Cheetor. Primal then turned back to the other two still left on the bridge. “Ruby has a … highly in-tuned intuition,” Optimus chose to reply and before they could ask any more questions on the matter, he began to issue orders. Megatron was going to strike soon. Primal could feel it.

* * *

Slowly scuttling his way over the rocky terrain, Rampage crested the ridge that held his prey. The tiny Maximal femme was currently sitting near the top of one of the many peaks in her robot mode, her right leg bent at the knee to rest her corresponding arm, looking down into the little valley nestled at the top of the ridge that his sensors had detected Black Arachnia and Silverbolt. He watched as she sighed, turning her gaze from the pair to watch the sunset on her right. The pain he was feeling from her was powerful, her sorrow great and growing each time he saw her. A pain that he in some regards shared with her, but found when she was the source it was a pure intoxication he had to have more of. There was also something mixed in with her sorrow, something that he had noticed the last time she was so near, but as to what exactly that something was he couldn’t place a claw on it. With a light shrug, the immortal crab pressed closer to his target, for once not arguing, much, with Megatron about the assignment.

Ruby’s audio receptors caught the scraping of scuttling claws against the rocky surface, but didn’t look away from the sunset before her as the massive figure stopped in front of where she sat. “I believe they hung out the ‘do not disturb’ sign,” she mumbled.

“But my dear, I’m already disturbed,” Rampage chuckled darkly. “Though they are giving me some wonderful ideas at the moment.”

“Good luck with that.”

Tilting his bestial head to the side, the Predacon focused up on her as she shifted to turn to face the last of the fading threads of light completely, resting her chin on her right knee as her arms hugged her leg close, leaving her left foot to dangle before him like a fishing lure. Feeling the appendage with his antenna, he was rather disappointed when she didn’t move away from him. Really, this femme was no fun at all. “There is something different about you, my sweet. Granted you are truly the first that hasn’t shown me their fear, but something has changed with you since the first moment I found you in my arms. You feel … more powerful,” he finally chose to say.

Ruby finally looked down with a slight frown at the gigantic crab that was just caressing her foot as they spoke. She had fought her first instinct to move away in fear when she first detected him, but at his suggestion she had a powerful, almost overwhelming, urge to defend herself at the perceived slight on her honor. It also was not easing away the more he ran his feelers over her foot, but she did her best not to kick him in the face for it. “I miss him more every day, Rampage. Even though I knew he was going to die and I thought I could change that.”

“Oh, really? So you know the future, my little pet?”

She heard the humor in his tone, the sarcasm dripping through it, but she kept her sudden surge of anger in check, just barely. “I know that Megatron cut out the core of your spark to keep you under control.”

“Bah! So your rat of a spy has been digging into Megatron’s files again. That doesn’t prove anything.”

“The Maximals don’t know this yet,” she glanced back down, turning her head to rest on the side of her knee now. “I also know what Megatron will do with said spark core, aside from keeping you in check.”

Slowly he began to climb across the rocks, surrounding her dangling leg like it was prey to be feasted upon. “Alright, I’ll bite. What is he going to do with the core of my spark?”

“Megatron will clone a more powerful version of Dinobot and use your spark to give it life.”

Not only did Rampage suddenly jerk backwards, away from her almost completely, but Ruby felt a powerful jolt in her torso. With a slight cough she sat up, gently pounding her fist into the middle of her torso plate.

“Excuse me. Think I had some bad Energon.” Once again she focused down on the mad, yet brilliant, Predacon. “I know you’re angry already about the control he has over you. Would it anger you further to know that he outlives you?”

Rampage’s beast mouth frowned at the thought, his claws snapping a couple times as he slowly backed away. “Why are you sharing this precious information, my sweet?”

“Because I need an extra set of hands to make sure that my Megatron, a nice sized target safe for you to let out _all_ your pent up anger on, doesn’t succeed.”

At the idea that he would have the opportunity to extract some serious pain on the Predacon tyrant brought a deliciously dark smile to his face as he savored the thought. “My hands are wherever you need them to be, my pet.”

“Good, you might want to get going before we’re forced to fight. There’s going to be plenty of that in a little while.”

“Fine, fine,” Rampage mumbled as he slowly crawled away, “but the next time we meet, we’ll have that bit of fun I promised you.”

Ruby waited a few more cycles before she transformed into her own beast mode to crawl further on top of the peak she rested on to wait, the cool night air gently blowing through her fur as the billions of stars overhead twinkled in the clear sky. It was a few mega-cycles before Silverbolt flew past her, obviously in a hurry to get back to the Axalon. With a hop off of the top of the mountain, Ruby opened up her jets and easily caught up to the distracted Fuzor.

Silverbolt did a double take as he caught sight of the other flier that appeared right beside him. His scanners never detected the femme, so her sudden appearance out of nowhere was rather startling. “Ruby!” he called out, quickly clearing his throat as the worry of being caught with the enemy seeped into his frame. “I-um … rather surprised to see you …”

Ruby smiled the best she could in her current mood. “Don’t worry, I always thought you two were made a rather cute pair. I’ll help you win her over.”

Blinking in surprise, Silverbolt was taken aback at her calm acceptance of his strange relationship. “I … um, thank you. But the others, they will not be happy when they find out.” Then his ears folded back. “Are you going to tell Optimus?”

“It’s not my place to,” she chose to answer, feeling a powerful swell of emotion, like a deep understanding of his struggle, in her chest. “And you can trust me. I know how to keep a secret.” With a playful wink to punctuate her point, Ruby was glad she was able to ease a bit of Silverbolt’s worry about her knowledge of his forbidden fruit. The rest of their flight had continued in silence as the moon slowly began to creep higher into the sky.

* * *

Dark green optics watched its prey from the shadows. It took time for his repairs since his first encounter with the Maximal , but he was fully operational and determined to finish his task. The rhinoceros based fighter darted around the building, looking around like a rat searching for a cat that might have been hiding around every corner, before it entered the storage facility. Apparently it was feeling very comfortable with the relax of the patrols, just like Megatron said he would become. Now it was time to finish their battle.

Silently the massive, mostly black, Vehicon transformed into a large truck, his huge wheels silently rolling over the metallic roadway as it crossed the street to the warehouse. He could feel the promise in his spark that their battle was going to end this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own the show. Thanks for reading.
> 
> Ah, the beginning of the end of season 2.


	15. The Agenda : Part 2

The base came into view all too soon, glistening in the slowly approaching pre-dawn light. Both Maximal fliers were greeted to the defense shields being fully operational. As they landed and transformed a portion of the shield before them split open and allowed them access to the lifts. The lift slowly ascended, locking into place as the cold walls gave way to the bridge on full alert, the other Maximals already at their assigned station.

“About time you two got back,” Optimus told the pair seriously, only turning part way to spare them a glance before he turned back to the command table he worked at. “Sentinel is on full alert.”

“Is there trouble?” Silverbolt inquired as he made his way over to an empty station, giving a slight smile as Ruby touched his arm before they parted ways. Since Optimus had not assigned her station, Ruby walked over to where Rhinox sat, looking over his shoulder at the information that crossed his screen as she held her hands behind her back.

“It’s now or never for Megatron,” their commander informed the pair. “If Cyberton shows-“

“Do you think he’ll take hostages?” Cheetor interrupted in a panicked tone.

Turning a grave look to his scout, Primal replied, “I’m praying that’s all he does.”

No sooner had Silverbolt sat down that Ruby caught Rattrap get up from his seat and walk over to chat privately about something with the Fuzor. “Probably more plans about when we get home,” she muttered, glancing down at Rhinox as the larger Maximal gave her a slight frown. She didn’t seem as stressed about this whole situation as the rest of them were. He had also noticed her holding herself a bit differently, her current pose reminding him quite a bit of Dinobot’s usual at ease.

Rattrap leaned against Silverbolt’s station as the Fuzor brought it online. The two fliers seemed awfully cozy upon their return and the infiltrator was going to figure out exactly why. “Sowa!” the rodent Transmetal practically squeaked the word, “Where ya been, Birddog?”

“Scout patrol,” Silverbolt answered quickly, his tone a bit defensive, as he focused up his station to help the others watch for an incoming attack.

“Oh! Yeah, yeah! ‘Scoutin’ de enemy’, yeah,” Rattrap began nodding his head as if agreeing, watching Silverbolt’s body language closely as the Fuzor cringed and turned a worried look the rodent’s way. He had guilty written all over him and Rattrap read it like an open book, and a quick glance over at Ruby, who was trying to be sly about watching them, spoke volumes about exactly what that guilty was. The Fuzor had been moving in on Dinobot’s old territory.

Ruby watched Rattrap lean closer to Silverbolt as they spoke before the Fuzor was suddenly on his feet, his fist knocking the infiltrator to the ground before stomping his foot on the rodent’s head to hold him in place for the righteous beating he was about to receive. She became quite alarmed at not only the sudden burst of anger from Silverbolt, but the rush of pleasure that shot through her from the sight. The commotion, however; did not go unnoticed by the rest of the crew. Primal was quick to put an end to the bickering, sending both of the bots back to their stations. Back at the holo-table, Primal watched the sweep over the image before him. “I want you all to stay alert. Report any motion, any unusual readings. The attack will come, but it may be subtle.”

The cycles passed slowly, but the Maximals remained focused on their individual tasks. Ruby had walked between the stations, observing each for a moment before moving to the next. She had actually spent most of the her time standing at the holo-table, her arms folded behind her back as she watched the field sweep around the ship. More than once Optimus spared her a glance, swearing he heard her snarl a bit like Dinobot use to when their friend use to be deep in thought. He had so many questions that he knew there would be no answer for. Not yet, possibly not ever.

The sudden arrival of a Predacon signature followed promptly by huge detonation charges striking the Axalon’s shields broke the painful silence, the concussive blasts shaking the ship hard enough to send its occupants crashing to the ground as they prepared to fight. As they began to pick themselves up, Optimus called the auto-guns to be activated, but even their aid was short lived. Rhinox had helped keep Ruby on her feet when more blasts struck the ship, before he had to rush back to his station.

The attack was fierce, the Predacons giving their all in hopes to destroy the Maximal’s defenses. The outside perimeter auto-guns were quickly taken out of the equation, allowing the attacking force closer access to the Axalon for their strikes. Ruby had to hold onto the table to keep her feet as the base shook violently around them.

“Shields at twenty percent and falling,” Silverbolt yelled over the klaxon.

“We’re losing weapon-system’s power,” Cheetor chimed in.

“Back-up grid online, but it won’t last,” Rhinox warned Optimus.

Primal shot a look to Rattrap. “Any sign of Cyberton ships?”

The infiltrator rushed back to his station and quickly pulled up the information. “Aww, nada! Ain’t a blip on de boards anywhere.”

Seeing no alternative, Optimus Primal pulled his weapon from the holster on his hip. “Then stand ready team. We may have to-“

As valiant as his speech might have been, they would never hear the rest as another violent blast shook the ship, throwing Primal into the other lift door and shattering it to pieces as the others struggled to keep upright. The other Maximals pulled their weapons free to being their counter attack the direct strikes on the base stopped. Outside they could hear massive energy strikes, their ship shaking from the repetitive impacts, but none had been directed at their ship. All too soon things grew eerily quiet as the Predacon forces began to flee from around their ship. With the enemy no longer detected on its scanners, Sentinel stood down from its red alert status.

Rattrap looked around as the klaxons stopped, focusing on Cheetor since he was the in the general direction he had been facing. “What de heck just happened?”

Sitting up, which sent shards of glass falling to the floor, Primal looked at his second-in-command. “We had … help.”

Turning a surprised look at their commander, Rattrap began to counter the idea. “Oh, no way. I was scannin’ across de board. Dere wasn’t nothin’, nada, bupkis out dere!”

“Then what would you call _this_?” Cheetor asked urgently, his screen showing a ship appearing out of thin air and landing just outside of their base.

Pulling himself back up to his feet, Primal began walking closer to Cheetor’s station to get a better look at the ship. “Lower the shields,” he quietly ordered.

“What?!” Rattrap asked, the others staying quiet as he proceeded to pick the words directly from their processors, in his own way of course. “Oh, please tell me dat new brain of yers is still under warranty! Dat _ain’t_ no Maximal ship!”

“If it wanted to attack us, Rattrap, it would have _done_ so already,” Primal firmly replied, his tone giving a huge hint that he would not concede his point. Turning to Rhinox he gave the order again.

Rhinox looked from Optimus to Ruby, who was glaring darkly at the ship on the screen as she leaned against the table, before he turned back to his station. “Sentinel standing down.”

The wait was long, the nano-clicks passing like mega-cycles as the Maximals waited for the next move. Ruby had her arms crossed over her chest as she impatiently thrummed her fingers on the arm they rested on as she watched the screen with the ship.

“Strange,” Silverbolt frowned thoughtfully. “One would think that a greeting would be the next step.”

“Tried all the hailing frequencies, no response,” Rhinox informed the Fuzor, knowing that the others were listening to their conversation.

Any other inquiries into the matter were quickly silenced as the overhead doors opened on their own, surprising all but one Maximal on the bridge. Ruby, who had been standing at the station just under the access point quickly leapt up onto the station as she drew Dinobot’s sword from her subspace pocket, using the shadows that the sudden bright sunlight created to her advantage. She was privately glad she had forgotten to turn off her signal dampening device when they had reached the ship earlier.

“Scanners,” Optimus ordered Rattrap.

“Nuthin’ up dere,” the rodent replied nervously. “Nuthin’! Oh man, dis is just gettin’ weirder ‘n weirder.” The infiltrator turned his attention to the Fuzor beside him as Silverbolt began to sniff the air.

“I smell something,” the white knight warned as he drew one of his wing tip weaponry. “Someone’s here. Someone we can’t see.”

At that point the rest of the Maximals drew their weaponry, watching as the two red lasers slowly swept over the visible occupants of the bridge as they waited on a razor’s edge for the possible attack.

“What do you think it is, Big Bot?” Cheetor whispered, trying to gain strength from his commanding officer’s knowledge.

“Not _what_ , _who_ ,” Optimus clarified quietly. “After the Great War a few Decepticons were granted amnesty. Most had retired, but rumor has it that one was reprogrammed and rebuilt,” then Primal spoke the last few words to let their visitor know that the game was over, “as a Predacon.”

Laser shot rang out of the opening, disarming all the Maximals that the laser sights had crosses. As he materialized, their visitor leapt onto the bridge itself, slowly sweeping his weapons around at the Maximals he had disarmed as he laughed. As his troops watched the intruder, Primal spoke the rumor’s name.

“Ravage.”

With a skillful twist of his wrists, Ravage spun his guns around before he placed them on his side holsters. “You _will_ pardon my shooting the weaponry from your hands,” he calmly demanded as his weapons clicked into place. “I only wish to avoid any regrettable . . . _accidents_ to my person.”

“’eah?” Rattrap challenged. “Well, next time try de front door.”

“Rattrap, please,” Optimus requested calmly.

“Please?!” That did not settle well with the infiltrator. “Oh, fer bootin’ up cold! De only ding worse dan a stinkin’ Pred is a stinkin’ Decepticon.”

Primal wasn’t going to let this one chance to go home slip through their fingers due to one of his own’s poor temper, so he gave Rattrap a shove,.“Shut up, Rattrap.” Turning back to Ravage he tried to mend what possible damage had been caused by the slight. “Forgive us. We’ve been fighting Megatron a long time.”

“For which the Predacon Alliance is deeply apologetic, I assure you. This is why I am here,” Ravage attempted to soothe the irate Maximals over, which the more he spoke the more Rhinox was becoming suspicious, especially seeing that Ruby had not relaxed from her hiding spot and the dark glare she was giving the bot before her. Snapping to attention, Ravage stated his intent. “Covert Agent Ravage, at your service.”

“Wait a cycle!” Rhionx demanded as he surged to his feet. “What about the Maximals?”

“I’m afraid the Transwarp wave was very weak. Only the Predacon sensors detected it.” Their guest offered as an answer, which did not settle well with any of the Maximal’s on the bridge. “You understand that we prefer to handle this situation . . . discretely.”

It was a sudden shift and the sound of an angry animal that came from behind Ravage, but before he had a chance to turn around something slammed onto his back. Ruby grabbed the Predacon in a head lock with her left arm, slammed her feet into his mid leg joints from behind, sending Ravage to his knees as she stood on the joints to keep him from moving, Dinobot’s sword tip digging into his back, the spinning tip slowly drilling into his structure as she applied a steady pressure with the weapon.

Ravage scanned the room with his optics, quickly counting the Maximals present. His current count did not match up with the scans from his own ship, apparently one had somehow gotten onto the bridge without his knowledge. One he had to be careful around.

“Tell another one,” Ruby warned, pressing harder with the sword. “I dare ya.”

“Ruby!” Optimus warned her, none of the other Maximals risking coming near the angry femme as she held their guest hostage. “Let him go.”

“De kiddo’s got de right idea,” Rattrap smirked from behind Primal, only shrugging when Optimus gave him a dark warning look to keep his mouth shut. Silverbolt and Cheetor watched in shock at the open aggression that she had been barely hiding as of late break through.

“Let him go,” Rhinox gently coaxed her, stepping closer towards her with his hands up and open. “I know you’re hurting right now from the loss of your spark-mate, but don’t do anything that you’ll regret.”

Ruby looked at the young image of her grand-sparker, his gentle words reminding her of her mission in as much telling her that he understood the source of her pain. And as much as she hated to, she had to let these events play out. Slowly Ruby eased up on her weapon and her hold before slowly stepping away from the Predacon. She did not take her optics off of him as Rhinox escorted her away, but she paused pointing the sword at his face as he still stayed on his knees. “Mark my words, you will not live past the megacycle you betray us. Do you understand?”

“Believe me, my dear,” Ravage answered as he gained his feet, towering over the tiny femme. “I fully intend to complete my mission.”

As she lowered her sword she didn’t break optic contact with him as she backed up to stand next to Rhinox. “I bet.”

Ravage only smiled at her, knowing that he’d have to keep a careful eye out for her. This tiny femme was a danger to his mission.

* * *

Keeping to the shadows as much as he was able to, Rhinox began to dig through the different scrap part bins that stood in neat rows. The process went slower than he really wished for it to have due to him pausing to take in his surroundings. The high shadows could hide any sort of nasty surprise and he could _feel_ something watching him. The slow creaking of the support beams and walkways above him did not ease any of the tension.

As he prepared to leave with his bounty of usable parts a dark form slammed into the access way that Rhinox utilized to enter the building. Rhinox slowly backed up as the huge figure slowly pulled itself to its full height, the green visor sweeping its scan over him. The whirling sound of its weapons powering up gave Rhinox enough time to move out of the way before it began a rapid fire assault from its fore claws. As he dove for cover, the Maximal rolled harshly and slammed himself as tightly to the crate as he could, curling up in both pain and in an attempt to make himself as small as a target as possible.

When his cover stopped shuddering from the blasts, the omega Maximal pulled one of his chain guns from his subspace pocket, checking to see if the venom filled projectile, the relic at this point that he had found in Ruby’s room the day Dinobot had died, was still in its chamber and ready to go. Rhinox hoped that the cyber-venom blend was still potent enough after all this time to help him out. He could use a miracle right about now. Pulling out his second chain gun, Rhinox shifted his wrists to cock the weapons into their ready status, took a steadying intake of air, and rushed into the open.

Running towards the other side Rhinox opened fire. His attacker took the several shots to its body, jerking from the blows as it attempted to return fire, but it was too preoccupied by the rapid bullet strikes to notice the projectile that flew from the center of the right chain gun and slammed into its neck.

Rhinox watched as his attacker’s body flail about as the venom began to take effect before it slammed face first into the metallic floor with a painful groan. Cautiously stepping closer to his fallen foe, the Maximal did not relax his weaponry just in case the terrifying machine decided that it wasn’t as out as it appeared. Instinct had still not abandoned him in all his vorns as the being before him shifted, but Rhinox was close enough that any and all shots he fired would strike directly at its processor. It lifted its head, focusing up at the Maximal as its visor ran a scanning sweep over him before speaking.

“Rhino-bot?”

It was a voice from his past that he never thought he would hear again, the same high pitched whine minus the distinction his beast mode had given. After a few moments Rhinox was able close his mouth from its slack jawed position and get his vocal emitter to work.

“Waspinator?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own the show. Thanks for reading.
> 
> Much like anything else, even a small tweak can make a huge change.


	16. The Agenda : Part 3

After telling Ravage the brief history of the Beast Wars, Primal pulled his engineer into the hallway with him, leaving Rattrap, Cheetor, and Silverbolt to guard their guest from Ruby. From the look Rhinox had on his face, Optimus was certain that they were wondering the same thing: What is going to happen with Ravage there?

“I don’t trust him, either,” Rhinox spoke quietly to keep their voices from carrying through the ship.

“By her reaction, old friend, it’s the right call,” Primal sighed as he glanced into the command center, “but we need his help to contain Megatron.”

“Do you think _he_ will make a move to stop us from attacking?”

“I don’t know,” Primal replied grimly as he rubbed his chin in thought. “The fact that _he_ was openly at the valley when Dinobot destroyed the disk bothers me, given the high risk of causing a paradox. We might want to keep Ruby here during the mission, that way she can protect the Axalon without worry while the rest of us take care of the Predacons.”

“She’s not going to like that,” Rhinox reminded his commander quietly, knowing that they’ve all seen how protective she had become of them all as of late.

Optimus sighed. “Let’s just hope she’ll see the reasoning behind it after we leave, but hopefully not have to act upon it.”

Rhinox nodded once before the pair turned to enter the command center of the Axalon.

“Gear up team,” Primal ordered. “We end this tonight.” Optimus held up his hand to stop Ruby from passing between himself and Rhinox, leaving them and Ravage on the bridge. “I need you to stay here, Ruby.”

The Transmetal flying squirrel shot her commander a non-too-happy look, turning that glare back at Ravage, who was pretending to occupy himself by taking in the surroundings of the bridge, before she looked back up at Primal. “You need all the help you can get.”

“We need somebody to stay here just in case Megatron figures out our plan to attack him and sends units to counter attack while we’re away.”

Closing her optics, Ruby took a deep breath and nodded. In a foresight that he didn’t realize, Optimus had brought something to her attention that she neglected to think of. The Axalon as it was now was as good as gone in the day after this, but if her foe destroys it where it sits while the Maximals are all busy with his past capture then their ship, and any future battles, were as good as gone.

“Yes, Sir.”

* * *

Rhinox watched the towering behemoth gain its treaded feet as it held one of its clawed hands to its head, still completely in shock over the unlikely scenario he now found himself in.

“Waspinator has a headache in his whole body.” When he began to look himself over, Waspinator jerked in surprise. “What happened to Waspinator’s body?”

“It must have been one of the changed Megatron made when he went back to the past,” Rhinox mumbled thoughtfully as he put his weapons away.

“Megatron went back?” the former wasp scratched his head, completely confused. “Waspinator remember Maximals winning the Beast Wars. Maximals left Waspinator on Earth as reward for giving up evil ways.”

“Time enough to explain that back at my place,” the Maximal warned. “Right now we need to get out of here before-“

Any further explanation was abruptly cut off as Waspinator grabbed his head and cried out in pain, his vocal emitter buzzing a bit. “Wazpinator’z procezzor iz zplitting in two! Why is Wazpinator’z memory files changing? What did Rhino-bot do to Wazpinator?”

“Your processor is adjusting to the time change,” Rhinox mumbled, attempting to soothe the huge bot before him by gently patting his arm.

“Why univerze hate Wazpinator?” he whined.

Rhinox assumed that everything had settled when the green visor looked back up at him, Waspinator’s jaw dropping. “Lizard-bot was the whole reason Maximals won?”

Frowning, the silver and green based bot thought about the idea. “I’m sure Dinobot had a huge hand in everything, especially about the Golden Disks, but, as I said before, we need to get out of here before the patrols pass again.”

With a groan, Waspinator was once again on his treads and quickly followed the Maximal as he led the way out of the warehouse. He had to pause when Rhinox lifted off the opening to the lower levels of Cybertron. “Waspinator not think he fit.”

Frowning again, the Maximal engineer looked his new ally over realizing that he was right. “It’s going to take time to get to, but there is a larger access six clicks south of here.”

“Let’s hurry,” Waspinator said quickly as he helped Rhinox move the cover back over the access point. “Waspinator doesn’t like dark Cybertron. Cyberton look too scary for Waspinator.”

It took several megacycles before they reached the access point, having to stop and hide from both patrols and the painful reaction of when Waspinator felt his memories change. Once underground enough for Rhinox to relax a bit, he helped Waspinator get settled into one of his small homes away from home. They couldn’t risk moving further into the planet while his companion was struggling with the file alterations.

Soon it was nightfall, the patrols usually relaxed a bit during this time, but Rhinox still kept watch. Waspinator still got spikes of pain, but had either had gotten use to them or learned to keep quiet for their safety. It was after one particular surge that he looked up at his Maximal friend.

“Rhino-bot?” he asked meakly.

Rhinox didn’t turn his head, looking out at one patrol that was passing by a junctioning tunnel. “What is it Waspinator?” he asked quietly.

“Who is Squirrel-bot?”

That question sent a panicking pulse through Rhinox, but he calmed it the best he could. He had assumed that he was recalling his history changing due to him being out of phase with the time stream he was in. If Waspinator was recalling it altering with Ruby in it, and he was in the current time flow, was the Megatron that currently ruled Cybertron also remembering her?

“She’s …” the Maximal began to answer, but stopped himself.

What if Waspinator was still working for Megatron? What if he was now remembering how things had changed in the favor of the Predacons and was playing him? His situation just became a hundred times more dangerous.

“She’s just a fellow Maximal,” he chose to reply.

“Maximals didn’t know Squirrel-bot was a time traveler? That Squirrel-bot went back in time to win Beast Wars back for Maximals?”

Rhinox looked back at Waspinator, noting the panicked look that was in his optics and the nervous way he was messing with his clawed hands. Whatever he was recalling, it was clear that the former Predacon didn’t like it.

“ _I_ know,” the omega Maximal replied, “I sent her back.”

“Oh …” Waspinator moaned painfully as he grabbed his head. “Rhino-bot forgive Waspinator! Waspinator not know he did wrong!”

Stepping away from the opening, Rhinox felt his fuel pump drop in his torso. “What is it that you remember, Waspinator?”

“Dragon-bot claimed he was Megatron! Dragon-bot gave Waspinator promises if he work for Dragon-bot and tell Megatron things, things of the future. Dragon-bot ordered Squirrel-bot destroyed!”

* * *

Ruby spent the night carefully lowering the boxes she had into the armored cargo-hold in the hallway right outside of the bridge. All the Maximals had packed most of their things in anticipation for their return home, most of their belongings in the hold for quick retrieval later. That foresight was the reason that they would still have most of their belongings later on. With a sigh she began to place the boxes that she and Rattrap had packed from Dinobot’s room into the hold, the task bringing her nearly to tears again. Satisfied with her progress, Ruby pulled herself out and sealed the hatch just as Sentinel gave the alert of an incoming ship. She had settled herself into the chair and began to look over the incoming data before Ravage’s ship had even touched down, pre-dawn light casting it in an ominous shadow.

The Transmetal flying squirrel did not like the Decepticon, and from what her grand-sparker told her it was for good reason. Looking out the window of the station next to her current one, Ruby frowned in thought as she rubbed her chin with her thumb. Something made Ravage and his ship invisible, both to the optics and to their ship’s sensors. She could utilize that to her advantage if she could get a chance to grab the device, not only to help keep the others safe from her mission, but ease her troubles about avoiding the other pieces in play. The idea settled so well that she could swear she heard Dinobot purr in agreement.

Ruby sighed as the lifts lowered to allow the Maximals access to the ship again. “I wish you were still here,” she whispered, holding a hand over the aching part in her torso plate. “You would have been able to warn them about Ravage and ended the threat before it became reality.”

Silverbolt and Rattrap were the first up the lift, the Maximal femme glancing over at them as they walked further onto the bridge. Rhinox and Cheetor were next, the scout the most excited over the recent capture despite the damage he had sustained, the youngest member of the team heading straight for the CR chamber.

Primal, in his beast mode, was the last to enter via the lift, solemn despite their victory. Quietly looking around the bridge at his crew, the Transmetal gorilla gave a tired sigh. “Silverbolt, after you’ve repaired meet me in my office.”

The remaining Maximals on the bridge watched as their leader slowly walked down the hallway and disappeared out of view. Rhinox prepared the second CR chamber for the Fuzor before he sat down at his own station, knowing that Optimus would prefer to speak to Silverbolt sooner than later.

Ruby only spared Rhinox a brief glance before she focused back on her own work station, not even asking about how the mission went. Rattrap, in his ever kind way, was already filling her in on all the details as he sat on the holo-table behind them.

The Maximal infiltrator watched her carefully as he told her the story of what went down, noticing that her fingers would tap on the arms of her chair when she’d look out at the ship. He knew what urge she was fighting, the drive that made her push past her injuries to attempt to avenge Dinobot the night he was killed; the drive that would have undoubtingly killed her without the achievement of her goal. Chopperface might have been an idiot, but he would not have wanted Ruby to go offline like that, not for revenge of the life he gave willingly to stop Megatron, no matter how much she wanted to join him in the All-Spark.

It was Ruby suddenly sliding her chair back, spinning around to face the room at the same time, and on her feet before him that had stopped Rattrap in mid-word. Quietly mumbling an excuse about needing to speak to Optimus before she left the bridge, she walked off leaving Rhinox and Rattrap sharing a puzzled look with one another.

Primal, in his robot mode, was rather surprised about the bot that walked into his chambers. It was not Silverbolt, like he had requested, but a very upset looking femme and he could easily guess what it was about. “You have something on your mind, Ruby?” he asked her calmly, but with a stern edge to his voice to gently remind her of his command.

“Why isn’t he dead?”

Primal had to fight smirking, seeing traits in her that belied her familiar origins: the firm look on her face, unwavering optics, the steady way she held her shoulders. Much like her grand-sparker she didn't beat around the bush when the truth was at stake. But Primal could see several of the little things that Dinobot would do as well, like how he would stand with his arms crossed in almost a defensive position whenever things were tense between him and his commander. "Ravage got to him before we did and put him under arrest. Also, it is not in our Maximal ways to execute a prisoner before a fair trial, as you _are_ fully aware."

Uncrossing her arms, Ruby pointed to the ship that filled up the whole view port of Optimus’ room, not breaking optic contact with him. “He is too dangerous to leave alive. You know that as much as I do. If you had only let me finish him off that night-“

“Then it would have been two Maximals we would have lost, not one.”

Ruby felt something in her torso lurch painfully, but she ignored it as she dropped her arms back to her side. “Optimus, Ravage isn’t trust worthy, and knowing Megatron he’s probably already planned on being captured and has ten ways of getting out of it. End the threat now before this snake bites us in the skidplate.”

Primal’s reply was cut short by the ringing of his door chime. _That must be Silverbolt,_ he thought to himself as he glanced at the door before he focused back at the tiny femme before him. “Stay away from Ravage and his ship,” he ordered her.

“But, -“

“You heard me, Ruby. You’re dismissed.”

Optimus heard the grind of metal on metal as Ruby clenched her fists tightly at her side as the door chimed again. “Enter,” their commander called out, the door opening and allowing Silverbolt to step through.

“You wanted to see me?” the Fuzor asked.

“I did,” Primal replied, looking from one visitor to another. “If you would excuse us, please.”

Ruby took a deep, angry breath and let it out before she turned sharply to walk out the door. Optimus watched as she paused beside Silverbolt for a moment, reached up and gently put her hand on his shoulder, the Fuzor nodding gently with a smile as he gently patted her hand before she slipped past him, the door shutting behind her. It was a small gesture that told Primal that things were going to get very complicated very soon.

* * *

The pain that was shooting through his Transmetal stage one processor was almost too much to bear. Holding his head as he stumbled down from his throne, Megatron fought to keep from crying out at the pain. He was confused at first when the pain began, but the correlation between it and the altering memories he had in his processor quickly gave him his answer. A little persistent somebody was still fighting to keep the Maximals as the victors; the troubling fact was she was succeeding even as he was giving his past self help.

His first trophy, which had been Dinobot’s head he originally gained the day that he had sent in the clone early on in the Beast Wars, had vanished from one of the pikes that he had placed around this throne chamber. The pain was sharp as he felt his memories alter from what was a victory that day to become a failure due to the annoying little flying vermin. For every new victory he had secured past that she had changed back into her favor.

There was also the issue of his little pest problem on his planet. Despite having his head still firmly attached to pike it had been welded to, Rhinox was still managing to run free on his Cybertron. The annoying Maximal somehow kept eluding his troops.

“You have produced clever offspring, yeess, almost as clever as you were,” he growled as he focused on the dead optics of the Maximal engineer’s head. “But it will not save her, noo. Nor, will it save you.”

Looking a bit off to his right Megatron winced a bit at the change in his memory processor, but slowly smiled as he looked back at the head before him. “Oh, how delicious…”

* * *

Ruby slowly peeked around the grouping of rock she hid behind, glancing towards the Axalon as she calculated when the scanners might reach her location. Twisting her beastial head back to look at her target she took a deep breath and ran as fast as she could for the landing gear to Ravage’s ship, quickly scampering up into the belly of the ship, using Silvebolt’s explosive exit as her distraction.

It was dark, as she had expected, but it would not truly aid her this day. Transforming into robot mode, Ruby quietly made her way out of the chamber the landing gear mechanisms were housed and climbed into the upper decks. According to Rattrap, Ravage was the one that controlled the invisibility device, his ship reacting to his body’s commands. She’d off him, take the device, and then end Megatron in his cell.

Climbing through the engineer access corridors that ran between floors, she had to take her time to not make any noise. Despite her best efforts, she did not see the sensor she passed by, which activated the security measures that Ravage had in place. A power bond device shot out of the top of the tunnel, wrapping securely around her arms and torso before a powerful Energon surge hit, making her scream out in pain.

Ravage looked up from the console that still held the image of Tarantulas, since he and the agent from the Predacon Secret Police discussed the location for an Energon deposit the spider had just hacked out of Megatron’s system, his computer alerting him to the intruder it had just detected and captured. It was further punctuated by the screams being heard from overhead.

“Computer, release hatch door,” the Decepticon ordered as he calmly walked towards the panel. The access door flung open, dropping the tiny Maximal harshly onto the ground with a loud crash.

Megatron watched from his cell, smiling as he took in the bound form of the little enigma. _Perfect_ , _just the pawn I needed,_ he thought to himself.

Ruby groaned as she looked up into the blood red optics of the Decepticon standing over her.

“And here I thought you were going to be a challenge,” Ravage said, laughing as he aimed one of his guns at her head, the red laser dot right between her optics.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own the show. Thanks for reading.
> 
> Honestly, when will she learn to listen?


	17. The Agenda : Part 4

Ruby quickly folded herself up, somersaulting twice as Ravage fired his weapon, a hole now in the flooring where her head had been a split nano-click before. She twisted around to stare him down, still on one knee. Megatron watched with a keen interest, trying to figure out exactly how she planned on defeating her foe since she was bound much like he was at the moment.

Ravage laughed again, firing more shots at her, but she proved to be quite the spry prey. Ruby quickly tucked and rolled to her left, and just as suddenly as she stopped and he had her in his sights she moved the other direction, at times bouncing off the walls she came near. Once he realized that he would not be able to get her from a distance, he holstered his weapon, clenched his fists and moved into a fighting stance.

The Maximal finally stood still; her arms still tightly bound at her sides, and stared him down, waiting for him to make his move. Ravage shot at her, throwing a punch at her head. Ruby stepped to her left, letting him move through with his punch, and quickly brought her right knee up into his abdomen and then twisted to her right to bring that leg up and around to strike him in the back.

Ravage was surprised by the blow, skidding across the floor on his stomach towards his computer station, but quickly got back up to his feet in time to block another round of kicks she was aiming at his head with her left foot. With one of her jabs he grabbed her ankle and twisted himself around, throwing her across the room. Ruby bounced twice before she slid along the floor, but used the momentum to flip herself backwards, pivoting on her right shoulder, finishing the skid on her feet.

“Do you think you really have a chance to defeat me, little femme?” Ravage taunted as the pair began to circle around the small space. “Foolish Maximals, holding tightly to your too noble ideas; it will be your downfall.”

“One thing wrong with that,” Ruby spoke calmly, not taking her eyes off of Ravage, even though she could feel Megatron’s optics burning into her back, since he was now in the cell directly behind her. “I learned to fight with a rat.” Ruby ran towards Ravage, but before she brought her right foot up to connect with the side plating on his torso she twisted it slightly on the ball joint, a sharp Energon blade suddenly appearing from the toe. “I know how to fight dirty.”

Ravage had a split second before her foot connected to move backwards, but it still sliced through his armor. It was shallow enough to miss his vital circuitry, but he still gasped in pain, holding his wound as mech fluid began to pour out. He quickly ducked as Ruby bounced up with a roundhouse kick with her right foot aimed directly for his head. It was with her next attack, her sweeping her leg down from behind for an upward blow to his chin, that he activated his invisibility device, making her halt awkwardly as she looked around for him.

“Dirty is not enough when you’re battling a Decepticon,” the disembodied voice said behind her before she felt somebody kick her in the back.

Ruby tumbled to the ground, but quickly got up on one knee, looking for any shimmer or clue that would give her foe away. There was a slight dripping of black mech fluid, difficult to see due to the dark surroundings, but it gave away enough of her foe that she was able to bolt away before his next strike hit.

“Impressive, but it’s still not enough,” she heard Ravage say in front of her now. “Auto-guns online. Target the Maximal.”

“Targeting,” the female computer voice replied.

Ruby firmed her look as two guns dropped down from the ceiling, swerving around to aim at her, and wasted no time in moving. As a volley of shots moved towards her the tiny femme ran straight for a nearby wall, running up it a couple steps and used it to back flip over the shots. Unfortunately for her she still had her invisible foe who took his time to aim his shot. Ruby cried out in pain as a blast struck her right foot, knocking her to the floor, which left her open for two more blasts from the auto-guns before they were ordered to stop.

Ravage reappeared, one hand holding his wound as the other aimed his weapon again at her head. “That was fun,” he smirked, “but I do not have time to play anymore.”

“Wait,” Megatron said suddenly from his cell, making the Decepticon glance back at him. “I think it would be more amusing for her to see the outcome of all of this. Don’t you agree?”

Ravage focused back down at her, the dark smile on his face growing wider. “I believe I do.”

* * *

Rhinox frowned as he looked over the data points that rolled across his screen. Optimus and Cheetor had left to retrieve the Energon stockpile that Ravage had informed them about and Silverbolt had run off to go retrieve Black Arachnia, which left Rattrap, Ruby, and himself on the Axalon to finish up their preparations to return to Cybertron. The engineer was busy back up all of their data, pulling a data-reel free from the computer to store it in a cylindrical container with others like it, when a disgruntled sigh drew his attention away from his work.

“Man, dis stinks,” Rattrap muttered as he hauled yet another box into the room and set it down with a heavy thud. “’ave ya seen Ruby? She’s suppose ta be helpin’ me here.”

Rhinox frowned as he turned his chair the rest of the way to face the room. “She hasn’t been helping you?”

Rattrap rolled his head a bit, his hands on his hips. “I haven’t seen her bushy lil’ tail since she marched out of ‘ere ta speak ta Optimus ‘n dat was before Bolt went flyin’ off after his deadly damsel.”

Turning back to his station the larger Maximal began to run a scanner sweep of the ship and the surrounding area. “Have you checked Dinobot’s room?” he asked quietly, having heard Rattrap stepping up beside him to look at the screen. After the death of their friend, he realized that Ruby’s trust in Dinobot had been well placed, though it pained him to think that she had put so much of her spark into their relationship it made him wonder if Dinobot was suppose to die that night, or if he was suppose to have lived on to have developed that relationship with his grandsparkling in the future. What else had already been changed?

“Dat was de first place I looked after I checked ‘er room,” the infiltrator replied. “Both of ‘em are cleaned out ‘n de boxes are already stored. Guess she kept busy while we had all de fun.”

With his frown deepening, Rhinox looked over at the window that held Ravage’s ship in its view. Rattrap stuttered as he looked between his best friend and the ship.

“Y-ya don’t dink _she’d_ be dat stupid, do ya? Ya know, goin’ against de Boss Monkey’s orders ta stay away from Ravage ‘n his ship?”

“You saw how she reacted to him,” Rhinox turned back to his scanners to attempt to locate his grandsparkling again. “Add to that the fact that Megatron is currently locked up on the ship and I’d put credits on it that she took the bait.”

“Joy…”

* * *

Ravage, freshly repaired, sat back in his control chair with a pleased smile on his face. The crew currently on the Axalon had opened a channel to him asking if he had seen their wayward femme. As smoothly as ever he had assured them that he had not and that he would tune his scanners to help them search for her.

“Foolish Maximals,” he chuckled, “and to think that they would have found her if not for her little trick of hiding her signature.” A bit of panic shot through him as his communications crackled to life, but he calmed when the caller spoke.

“ _This is Optimus Primal calling Ravage. Come in.”_

“Ravage here, what is the situation?” the Decepticon sat up a bit in his chair.

“ _The Energon stockpile was a trap. See if you can find out any more about it from Megatron’s systems.”_

Frowning thoughtfully, the cassette tapped his fingers on the arm of his seat. “I will look into it further. Ravage out.”

Exiting the bridge of his ship, Ravage walked deeper into his craft to the brig, eyeing the two prisoners he had in the cells on either side of the room. He had heard her before he saw her, Ruby was sitting against the back wall of her cell, still bound and battered, but her head was resting to the side as she sang, “This is the song that never ends, yes it goes on and on my friends. Some people started singing it, not knowing what it was, but they’ll continue singing it forever just because … “ before she started it over.

Glancing over at Megatron he could easily see that her antics were beginning to wear on the mighty Predacon leader, but he was hiding it quite well. _She sure has a unique style of physiological warfare,_ Ravage thought before he walked up to Megatron.

“So, it was a trap,” he began, noticing that Ruby had stopped and was watching them.

“Oh, no! Really?” Megatron sarcastically remarked.

“You are a piece of work,” Ravage retorted, hitting his fist on a button on the console beside him which dropped down two guns from the ceiling. “Even at present you still operate your own agenda.”

“I’m not naïve,” the bound tyrant replied mater-of-factly. “You have no intention of returning me, or any of us, back to Cybertron alive.”

“That is true,” the Decepticon admitted. “But your crew is scattered, and I want no witnesses.”

Behind Ravage, Megatron could see that Ruby didn’t seem surprised at the news she had just heard. Her jaw just set in place as she grimly watched and listened, knowing that she would be the very next one to die.

“Still,” Ravage continued as he began to adjust one of the guns, “why should I tolerate your existence any longer?”

“Did you ever wonder _why_ I stole the Golden Disk in the first place?” Megatron challenged.

“You were looking for Energon,” Ravage answered, his tone mocking as if the answer wasn’t that hard to figure out.

“That was a bonus. It allowed me to recruit a crew and gave potential for power,” the tyrant smirked at the widening optics of both Ravage and Ruby, “but the real reason was this. The Golden Disk was launched from Earth aboard the Voyager spacecraft just as the secret war between the Autobots and Decepticons began. The original Megatron, _your_ commander, had every intention of winning, but, like myself, he covered his bets. He inscribed a secret message into the Golden Disk; a message that I myself discovered and decoded.”

Ravage scoffed a bit. “I am expected to believe you? You said yourself that the disk was destroyed.” He watched as Megatron motioned for the Decepticon to remove his bindings . Turning towards the controls in the room he ordered, “Auto-guns online, target prisoner one.”

“Targeting,” the female computer voice replied.

Ruby remained stoic as she watched. The Maximals never found out exactly what made Ravage set Megatron free. Primal had assumed that it was Megatron’s smooth talking ways, and she was beginning to believe it.

Megatron panicked a bit as first one of the guns focused on him and quickly the other. Ravage growled a bit at him, but then it surprised the tyrant when the Decepticon gave the command to release the power bonds. Giving a much needed stretch of his arms, Megatron smiled as he tasted his victory. A victory that could not have been possible without the help of a certain friend. He ejected the Golden Disk fragment that Waspinator had collected per the orders of said friend and held it up for Ravage and Ruby to see.

“The disk was destroyed, but a fragment remains,” he answered, shifting the end of his tail weaponry to the record player device he utilized. Securing the fragment, Megatron swatted it to send it spinning. “And I’m not expecting you to believe me. Right Ruby?” he asked around their captor.

Ruby shot a dark and brooding look his way, as if she could kill them both by staring them down.

Megatron extended his tail projector, playing the file that remained on the fragment of the disk. The image was that of the original Megatron’s face, his smile as if he could taste inevitable victory, the file starting well after its original beginning.

“… failed, this time,” the original Megatron laughed. “But I know that transwarp technology is being developed and so I leave this message to any Decepticon decedents that may find the courage to follow in my footsteps. I charge you with going to the time before we awaken on Earth and … Earth and … Earth and …” The message began to skip, so Megatron shut it down.

Knowing the original Megatron like he had, having served with him for countless solar cycles, Ravage knew that it was authentic. How could he object?

“Auto-guns offline. Retract cell one’s bars,” he ordered.

“Complying,” the computer replied.

Megatron savored his victory as the power crystals slowly began to shut down, allowing him to step out. He towered over the now cowering Decepticon, letting his displeasure show openly on his face.

“Now …” Ravage tried to say as calmly as he could, but his ears still folded back in fear as Megatron bowed himself closer to his face, “let us talk.”

“T minus sixty cycles and counting,” Ruby calmly spoke, making Ravage risk looking back at her for a split nano-click.

* * *

“Please forgive Waspinator! Waspinator didn’t know what he was doing!”

Rhinox quickly clamped one hand over the larger bot’s faceplate, trying to quiet him down before the patrols heard them. Fortunately his companion took the hint. They both watched tensely as light swept across the opening to their hiding place, both quietly moving out of its view as it flitted through, before they heard the drones move past. With a deep sigh of relief, Rhinox let Waspinator go.

“You didn’t know at the time, but this doesn’t bode well for us. If you’re recalling her then chances are the Megatron here is as well. Tell me, how much do you remember? Are you recalling her death at all?”

The large bot shook his head. “Waspinator remember picking up pieces of himself from in front of Maximal’s mountain. Waspinator doesn’t remember Squirrel-bot in any more memories past that.”

Rhinox sighed. “She doesn’t come up in any of my later memories either, but that could mean one of two things. One, she hasn’t affected that part of history yet, or two, she somehow died between when we captured Megatron and Ravage turned.”

He recalled the worst feelings from back then, realizing with Rattrap that Ruby had possibly gone after Megatron on Ravage’s ship and all the potential danger that it had with it. He hoped that Ruby had not been that stupid, but revenge often blinded one with stupidity.

“What is Rhino-bot and Waspinator going to do?”

“We’re going to have to get back to my most recent home and figure out a way to get you a new body. It’s too bulky for the stealth we need to survive.”

“OoooooOOO, Waspinator like to have new body! Waspinator miss flying.”

Rhinox peeked out of the opening again, checking for more patrols. “They must have found the mess at the warehouse. Their search pattern is more frequent than it had been. We’ll have to camp here for the night. I’ve got first watch.”

Waspinator folded himself down as much as he could, dreaming of the time when he had the freedom of flight.

* * *

Rattrap and Rhinox both watched in shocked horror as Ravage’s ship simply vanished before their eyes. Naturally their scanners didn’t detect it, so it sent them into a frenzy with activating their defenses. Optimus and Cheetor should be returning soon, but hopefully it would be in time.

* * *

Ravage’s invisible ship swept across the land, heading towards the settings that Megatron had given him and ordered the Decepticon to go to first. The Predacon tyrant was standing on the bridge of the ship with Ruby at his side, her arms still bound to her side with the power bonds. As the ship slowed to a stop, they hovered for a moment before a particular cavern, the setting sun casting it in an ominous light.

“I’m afraid this is your stop, Ruby,” Megatron said with a laugh as he backed away. “We can’t have you helping your Maximal friends now, can we?”

Ravage pulled the lever at his side. The bottom suddenly dropped out from under her, sending her into a freefall. With her arms bound like they were she wasn’t able to transform into her beast form to be able to fly to safety. Using the fall to her advantage, Ruby aimed to land with one of the devices holding her first, choosing the one that was directly behind her right arm. It was a rough landing, the pain making her cry out as she bounced down the mountain side, stopping right before the cave entrance, but the device powered off as she lay there waiting for her systems to cycle back online.

Overhead Megatron laughed as she landed, then looked over at his subordinate. “Quickly, pick up your partner. We have to meet Primal back at his base, to say our good-byes.”

With a quick nod, Ravage shifted the controls of his ship to speed away.

On the ground, Ruby groaned as she rolled herself onto her back. Pain shot through her as she moved her right arm, but she bit it back with a harsh groan as she sat up, her left hand holding her right arm at the elbow joint.

“Ruby to Maximal base,” she said, trying to mask her pain as she deactivated her signal dampener and activated her comm-link. “Come in Rhinox.”

“ _Ruby!”_ came the almost relieved reply, which made her wince a bit with guilt. _“Are you alright? Where are you?”_

“I went for a flight.” Well, she wasn’t exactly lying about that. “Ravage and Megatron knocked me out of the sky. I think they’re going to attack the Axalon.”

“ _Understood, can you fly back to the base?”_

“Negative. I was damaged in the fall, but I’ll get there as soon as I can.”

“ _Understood, Rhinox out.”_

As her communicator died the ground began to shake beneath her, slowly in a repetitive pulse that grew more powerful each time, sending small rocks bouncing into the air each time. She realized it could have only been one thing, her jaw dropping as the gigantic dragon’s head with its tarnished red and gold design, gleamed in the sun’s dying light.

His gaze set on her as he lowered his head, a vicious smile grazing his muzzle. “Check.”

“Oh … slag …”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own the show. Nor do I own the song.
> 
> “The Song that Never Ends” belongs to Norman Martin and made popular by Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop. I have many, many fond memories of that song …


	18. Behind the Agenda

Ruby screamed in pain as she quickly rolled herself onto her stomach and tried to scramble away using her good foot and arm, but it wasn’t enough. Megatron laughed viciously as he slammed his front right food down on her legs, pinning her to the rocks below. The damage she sustained from her fight with Ravage and the fall from his ship left her at a disadvantage. She didn’t think it could get any worse until Megatron started to bat her around like a cat toy, sending her sliding across the rocky surface between his fore claws, even grabbing her in his maw to throw her into the air.

“Oh, my, this _is_ fun, isn’t it my dear?” He asked her as he finally let her lay still on the ground, groaning in pain as she tried to move.

Ruby’s optics flickered online finally as she tried to focus up at him, weakly trying to push herself away on her back with her left leg. She was stuck and it was her fault. _Should have stayed away from the ship,_ she chided herself. _Gotta think of something._

“Tons,” Ruby finally groaned out, “but you’re still not going to win. You know as well as I do how tonight ends. With the Maximals defending the Ark.”

“I know full well how tonight is going to end,” he told her darkly, moving his head right over her, close enough she could feel the heat of the fire in his throat. “The Maximals will only make themselves an easier target by trying to defend their precious Autobot ancestors, but I _will_ defeat them.”

“You can’t interact with them, and you’ll be putting yourself at risk of being seen by yourself,” she reminded her foe. “That would defeat your whole purpose of being here.”

“Not if they don’t have their precious ship to aid them,” Megatron replied darkly.

Panic shot through her, but she did her best to hide it. He was going to destroy the Axalon before his past self could order his troops to do so. She had to think fast on how to get to the ship to prevent that from happening. “Are you sure about that? You must remember that _I_ know the future of this war, too. I’ve make preparations in Sentinel’s programming. Your troops won’t be able to get near the ship.”

“Impossible!” Megatron shouted down at her. “You would change your own grandsparker’s history?”

“Yeah, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Your past self and your troops won’t be able to touch the Axalon _or_ the Ark,” she ground out as she rolled back to her stomach and tried to scoot away from the dragon. “If you would excuse me … I have a historical change to go watch.”

Megatron shouted in anger, flapping his wings as he stepped completely out of the cavern that had been his resting place, “The only change you’ll see, Maximal, is _my_ victory!”

Ruby groaned in pain as Megatron clamped one of his fore claws around her, actually picking her up before he took flight. Her processor was spinning from the mix of pain and sudden movement, and the undulating wasn’t helping either, but her little plan succeeded. Megatron might have been planning on heading to destroy the Axalon, but at least he was giving her a free ride in the process.

She looked down as the night finally fell completely around them, the ground looking like a violently swelling ocean below. _If I toss my Energon cookies from the flight, is it still a free ride?_

* * *

It was risky to remain so close to the surface, but after a long discussion Rhinox and Waspinator had both decided that it was better for them to grab some of the drones, or at least several parts of what remained of said drones, to begin working on Waspinator’s smaller form. They wisely picked their battles, making sure that any skirmish they had happened far away from the network of entrances and tunnels that they utilized for their own safety.

The pair quickly dug through the remains of the drones, loading the vast quantities of parts into the large storage area Waspinator’s current body contained. It was nice to have the mobile cargo transport, but their safety depended on the former Predacon being able to hide easily.

“Waspinator like working with Rhino-bot,” the larger of the two told his companion as they slowly made their way to a temporary workshop with their bounty. “Waspinator not recall any battle in Beast Wars that didn’t leave Waspinator in pieces. Waspinator should have joined Maximals sooner.”

“I’m surprised that Ruby had not made the offer to you,” Rhinox replied quietly, walking in his beast mode.

“Squirrel-bot smart not to trust Waspinator,” the tankish form said, remorse predominate in his voice.

Rhinox frowned a bit, as he searched his memories for any possible changes since his last communication with Ruby before the events that lead them to the Ark, aside from a message that he had received from the Axalon. Part of him wanted to be angry at his new partner, but deep down he understood that Waspinator had no idea what was going on or how he was being manipulated by Megatron.

“Waspinator know!” the tank said suddenly. “Rhino-bot and Waspinator build new body for Waspinator and Rhino-bot and Waspinator back to help Squirrel-bot!”

“As noble as an idea that is, that’s simply not an option,” the animal said after quietly thinking the idea over very carefully. “We can’t go back for the same reason I sent her. We’d risk unraveling the time stream if we happen to interact with ourselves at all.”

Waspinator transformed once they reached a particular large metal panel in the tunnel wall, lifting part of it out of the way for Rhinox to enter before he slipped him himself, sliding their door back into place. Their bounty was quickly unpacked, various drone pieces strewn about on every available surface. With a quick inventory check and the pair were ready to begin.

Rhinox assembled the parts, reworking damaged components into properly functioning ones, as Waspinator fetched the parts he required, which the Predacon proved to be quite efficient in due to having to gather his own parts after the battles. He was able to find and retrieve what was needed most times before Rhinox even had to ask. It appeared that Waspinator had missed out on his real calling in life; he would have made a great medic.

* * *

Megatron smiled in victory as his target came into view. The Axalon sat quietly on the crash-site from so long ago, its shields down. What was left of Ravage’s ship sat smoldering just slightly north of the Maximal’s ship while pieces of his past crew littered the battle ground. Zooming in with his optics, he quickly double checked to make sure that none of his soldiers were functional, not wishing to have to battle them at this time just to keep his mission on track. As he swooped in over the ship to give it one last test of its defenses, Megatron began to laugh at his apparent victory as he began to build up a fireball in his throat.

Ruby looked down at the ship as they flew past it, trying to gauge if anyone was at the base or not, but knew she didn’t have enough time to warn them as his fireball seared the air as it flew towards the ship. “Sentinel online. Activate ‘Red Queen’ protocol,” she ordered.

The defense shields powered on in time to block the blast, making the Predacon dragon scream in rage. Before he could worry about that failure, two sets of auto-guns opened up from the top of the base and sent a violent volley his way, striking the massive beast and sending it and its prey crashing to the ground.

Ruby struggled to stay conscious, the ship still firing over her at its programmed target until it ran out of auxiliary energy. She looked from the ship, as the shields blinked on and off until it faded completely out of existence, to Megatron as he transformed and stomped his way over towards her.

“I tire of your games, Ruby, yeess, just as I tired of Dinobot’s,” he told her coldly. “Did you know that your precious Maximals are fighting a battle he helped begin? That he was a willing part in my agenda _before_ we left Cybertron with the Golden Disk?”

Ruby rolled to her right side, using her left hand to hold her up enough to watch as Megatron approached. Her torso throbbed with pain, the spark within her pulsing with wildly from battle as she felt the overwhelming swell of emotions washing through her from each accusation from the foul beast. Anger, failure, … remorse … all pulsating around her processor and spark like a living thing until her body couldn’t handle it any more. Pushing herself to her back, she lifted her arms up and activated her wrist weaponry, sending energy shots in a pulsating manner at her target until they fizzled out.

“ _Warning, systems failing,”_ her internal computer began. _“Power reserves at 87 percent depleted. Stasis lock commencing.”_

“Computer, override stasis lock systems,” she quickly ordered.

“ _Negative. Unit Rhinox has disabled stasis lock override.”_

“Bypass command, pass code ‘Castling',” she ground out. “If I die, I’m taking him with me.”

“ _Acknowledged. Stasis lock disabled. Spark failure imminent.”_

“Don’t worry, Ruby,” Megatron smiled darkly down at her. “I’ll let you live long enough to watch as I rip the heads off of your precious Maximals, oh yeess, and the Autobots, too! I’ll show you exactly what Dinobot couldn’t stomach to accomplish!”

“NO!”

Megatron’s optics went wide at the beastial sound powered by a double voice that ripped out of the tiny wounded thing before him. Bright blue energy began to burn off of her form, slowly taking shape before his very optics as she slowly stood up and pulled Dinobot’s sword from her subspace pocket. Ruby’s actual body wasn’t touching the ground, but floated in the effigy of one he thought defeated; Dinobot’s very image glowing around her like a battle aura.

* * *

Rhinox held onto the front part of Optimus’ hover board for dear life, not wishing to fall off as they sped over the terrain. He didn’t mind flying, he just preferred the safety of a ship around him while he was doing it. The Maximal engineer was so focused on holding on for dear life that he almost let go when his internal computer suddenly broke through his thoughts, making him jump slightly.

“ _Red Queen protocol activated,”_ the male system voice had kindly informed him.

Optimus had to adjust to keep from losing his passenger, but too had received the notification. He met Rhinox’s optics as his friend looked back at him, knowing he had a puzzled look on his face as he mouthed, “ _Red Queen?_ ”

It seemed that Rhinox had figured it out quickly, mouthing back, “ _Ruby”_.

Rattrap had glanced to the side, having noticed his best friend look like he was about to take a nose dive off of Primal’s board. Whatever startled him apparently got Optimus, too, but with all the orders that he had been given lately, it made the infiltrator wonder what they were quietly sharing a look about. Good thing he practiced so hard at reading lips. Narrowing his optics, Rattrap firmly decided that he needed to find out exactly what it was about Ruby that those two were keeping from them.

* * *

He knew Megatron’s true plans from the beginning. That ugly truth had come out and he had felt her repulsion from hearing it, but also her understanding as her memories of the mountain top with the Golden Disk played through him. She knew at that moment what part he had played, what part he was going to play, in the destruction of the Autobots. After the sting of shame coursed through his spark, which rested next to her own, he felt her acceptance of his error and her forgiveness. She knew he had been trying to right the wrong he had been a part of from that night forward.

After she released the blocking program the night that he had given his all came rushing back violently as the almost same exact events played out. He recalled the valley, his final battle that he sacrificed himself so that Optimus and the others could live. So Ruby could live. The very thing that drew him back to the planet now needed him once more. His spark could not rest knowing that she was in danger, that she would _put_ herself in harm’s way just to protect those she loved more than her own life. She would give the highest honor a warrior could give to their friends and family, and he could not let her do that.

“You will not be victorious this day, Megatron,” Dinobot and Ruby said as one as they pointed the slowly spinning blade at him in warning.

Megatron narrowed his optics down at the glowing femme before him, anger seething from him. “So this is how you were able to aid the Maximals to the very end. You had come back, just like Starscream, and waited for Rampage to be destroyed so you could take over your new body. Too bad you wasted your chance on this poor excuse for a Maximal!”

Dinobot and Ruby dodged to the left, rolling along the ground, to avoid the downward swing of Megatron’s fist, before they ran at the towering tyrant, the sword singing in the night air as the stars above watched the violent battle. The Maximal duo utilized their best traits, Dinobot’s skill and Ruby’s agility, to avoid their enemy’s attacks while they struck blow after blow to their foe. They knew they had to take him down quickly before the last bit of Ruby’s energy had become depleted.

* * *

It was the sound of battle that drew Rampage away from his own physical pain. He enjoyed feeling such wonderful delights, but there was a moment that he was actually worried that the huge explosive would actually end his existence. Fortunately for him he still lived. It was slow and enjoyably painful, but he managed to pull himself out of the charred crater that Ravage’s ship had created. He saw his little toy battling a behemoth of a Cybertronian, her tiny form glowing brilliantly in the dark in the shape of … “Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

He had fought the Predacon traitor a time or two before his valiant demise. Finding the noble ones the best source of pain he could tap, he had promised to make sure that Dinobot would suffer terrible pains before he ended his life, which sadly his plans never got the chance of fulfillment, yet. It seemed that Dinobot had other plans. No wonder his little toy had felt more powerful, having drawn him closer to her each time. It was not just one spark’s pain he was feeding from her, but two.

Then Rampage’s optics focused on the towering giant, feeling his face pull into a joyful smile. “Oh my sweet little morsel,” he crooned. “You weren’t lying to me about having the perfect target to take my frustrations out on, were you?”

In his dark mind, Rampage settled on the idea that Dinobot had realized that Ruby was not adequate enough to face her foe one on one any longer, that she needed help. The dark Predacon would help her out, get her ready for a battle to end all battles, and then after her victory relish her in his own, personal way.

Pulling out his massive triple rocket launcher, he pulled the handle that loaded it before he took aim. “Time to join the party.”  
  


Rampages mad cackle echoed around them ominously before the scream of rockets filled the air. Megatron half turned to look at his subordinate only to be struck in the center of his chest by all three of the rockets that the mad crab fired at him. Dinobot and Ruby, as one, watched as the tyrant, in his robotic form, went flying backwards, crashing hard onto the ground before he skidded painfully to a stop.

“How dare you!” the time displaced Predacon leader demanded as he climbed back up to his feet, his right hand holding his sparking torso armor. “You dare to betray me? I’ll crush your useless core of a spark for this! Oh, yeess!”

Rampage laughed again, leaping from his craggy perch, using the fall to transform into his tank mode. “I’ll share the pain _with_ you!” he called out, more rockets screaming towards their target.

Megatron cried out in pain, moving his dragon head up to block some of the damage, but it was the several quick strikes of a very sharp blade across his back, mostly over the beastial tail that hung from his head, that gave him a quick distraction from his former subordinate’s vicious retribution. Quickly reaching back with his beast head, the tyrant caught the glowing form on his back and pitched it away from himself before focusing on the crazed crustacean before him. Rampage, by this point, had regained his robot mode and was firing one rocket at a time, for once oddly focused.

Dinobot and Ruby hit one of the nearby buttes before crashing to the ground harshly, losing their sword along the way. They looked up in time to see Rampage quickly leap to the right to avoid Megatron stomping down on him, but the Predacon continued to fire up into the underside of the towering tyrant before him as he moved through the air before he rolled along the ground to upright himself. The duo-in-one ran back towards their enemy, drawing out her gatling gun and opened fire. Megatron had had enough by this point and quickly snapped his dragon’s head down, tightly gripping the glowing femme and lifting her up in the air.

“Let her go!” Rampage yelled, shaking a fist up at Megatron since he did not want to risk hurting Ruby, not yet at least. “She’s my play thing!”

“You are useless to me now, Rampage, yeess,” Megatron informed him darkly before he swung the same hand that held Ruby firmly in its sharp grip, sending him tumbling a few meters away, before he pulled the angry looking pair back up to his face height. “As for you two, you have done nothing but prolong the inevitable.” He poured all of his anger and frustration into his grip making them both cry out in pain, the squeal of bending metal and sparks from breaking connectors joining the macabre chorus.

The earth shook beneath them, making Megatron look up and past his hand in time to catch the violent energy storm heading his way. The wave struck hard, making him drop Ruby as the light around her faded and she crashed into the ground.

To be continued?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t own the show. Thanks for reading.
> 
> Castling is the move where you block the King in with the Rook, the only move where you can move two pieces at once.
> 
> Finally at the end of Season Two! Sorry “The Agenda” has taken me so long to post. I just wanted to make sure that I had gotten it right. It’s a set of episodes that I’ve been pondering on and off for over the past 10+ years since I first came up with the fanfiction storyline concept, including the name of this chapter. Having to adapt it to fit Ruby was not only challenging, but quite enjoyable.

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t own the show. Thank you for reading!


End file.
